Reports from the Field

Group questions Measure S, demands answers from Sheriff Bill Brown By WILL McGOUGH -- SEPT. 18, 2010

2010-10-06T01:55:00.000-07:00

With the November election approaching, members of several advocacy groups gathered Saturday to propose questions and create dialogue over the critical issues surrounding Measure S and Proposition 19.

Families ACT!, an organization founded in 2007 to address possible injustices inherent in current policies that have led to the neglect and criminalization of citizens, called a press conference at the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Headquarters and spoke to members of the media about the country’s failed drug policies, specifically the effects they have on laws and families of Santa Barbara County.

The group made the case that unless the county invests in an effective treatment model to address the mental health needs as well as the substance use disorders of those who are crowding the county jail, building a new jail will not solve the problem.

“Our prisons are overcrowded, our jails are overcrowded, one out of 99 Americans is incarcerated, one out of 31 Americans is either incarcerated or under correctional control,” said Suzanne Riordan, Executive Director of Families ACT!. “Our incarceration rate is far greater than any country in the world.”

Riordan said that instead of focusing on creating more space, we should be asking questions about why our incarceration rate is so high.

“It doesn’t matter how many jails we build in Santa Barbara County,” said Riordan. “We’re not going to be able to turn this around until we provide some treatment for people and until we look at who is sitting in our jail, who is sitting in our prisons, and why are they there.”

Gretchen Burns Bergman, the executive sirector and Co-Founder of A New PATH (Parents for Addiction Treatment and Healing) and an organizer from Mothers United Against the War on Drugs, said the reason is quite clear: our current polices take punitive measures instead of focusing on therapy.

“We’re joining with friends, family members and fellow activists to stop the violence, the mass incarceration and overdose deaths resulting from draconian drug policies,” Bergman said of A New Path, an organization working to reduce the shame associated with addictive illness.

“Criminalization is not the answer when it comes to addition,” added treatment advocate Stefanee White. “We need to remove the stigma of guilt, fear and shame that are attached to addiction and mental illness so these young adults can receive the help that they need.”

Also on the November ballot is Proposition 19, which would legalize the possession of marijuana for personal use. Bergman said A New Path has officially endorsed Proposition 19 in an attempt to put an end to unsuccessful prohibition policies.

“Prohibition has failed again,” Bergman said, “And moms are leading the charge to end prohibition just as they did with alcohol prohibition in the 1930s, not because we love drugs and alcohol, just the opposite. It’s because we love our children and we want them to receive the services they need.”

A New Path asserts that government control and taxation of marijuana would create opportunities to reduce recidivism.

“Proposition 19 will tax and regulate marijuana,” Bergman said. “Regulation will inhibit access to minors and reduce mass arrests. Taxation could generate billions of dollars that could be used for much needed treatment services. Too many young people have lost their lives or their liberties to a war on drugs, which has really become a war waged against individuals and their families.”

Measure S, the proposed half-cent sales tax increase that would help to fund the construction of a new North County Jail, was also highly scrutinized.

“We have a 70 percent recidivism rate in this county and in this state,” Riordan said. “So if we just keep building new jails and new prisons, nothing will change.”

In addition to funding a new North County jail, the tax increase would also contribute $5 million per year to “recidivism reduction efforts and alternatives-to-incarceration.” While Riordan is happy to see money allocated toward rehabilitation, a more transparent plan is necessary, she said.

“What we want today in Santa Barbara are answers from our Sheriff Bill Brown… From our mental health department, from our country supervisors and from our public health department,” Riordan said. “We want to know that if we vote for Measure S and $5 million is advocated per year for 14 years for programs to prevent recidivism, exactly how is this going to be done? We need to start asking some really tough questions. Where is that $5 million going to go? Is it going to be administered by the Sheriff’s Department? Is it going to go for programs that are more of the same?”

“Are we going to do anything differently?” she asked.

As a result of a lack of clarity in how the money raised by Measure S will be spent, Families ACT! has chosen not to position themselves on one side or the other until more information is revealed.

“We have not taken a stand because it’s not specific enough,” said Onja Lawson, a family advocate with Families ACT!. “It doesn’t tell us what the extra $5 million is going to be used for. The language and wording is not very clear. We need more specific guidelines on how the money will be used, not just saying ‘recidivism.’”

Bergman concluded her speech by asking members of the community to become involved in A New Path’s campaign.

“Speak out, demand change for the future of our children and our children’s children,” Bergman said. “The United States spends $40 billion a year on a failed war on drugs.”

“In this economic time, this is absolute insanity,” Bergman said.

A New View: Families Act! examines link between mental health services, drug laws, jail overcrowding and Measure S By NOAH SMITH -- SEPT. 17, 2010

2010-10-06T01:53:00.000-07:00

Debate has swirled surrounding Proposition 19 and Measure S, but little of the discussion has focused on the possible links between the two.

Families ACT! and other area groups are hoping to change that.

“There is a connection between our drug laws, lack of mental health facilities, and jail overcrowding,” says Suzanne Riordan, executive director of Families ACT!, a group that advocates for individuals who suffer from mental illness and drug and alcohol addiction.

Riordan will hold a press conference at 11 a.m. this Saturday at the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Headquarters to tackle the issues head-on.

She will be joined by Gretchen Burns Bergman, a nationally recognized organizer representing Mothers United Against the War on Drugs and A New PATH (Parents for Addiction Treatment and Healing).

Families ACT! was founded in 2007, after multiple instances during 2005 and 2006 in which young dually diagnosed individuals died in Santa Barbara.

“We need more community support for residential treatment programs,” Riordan said. “Jail overcrowding is only a symptom of a much bigger complex of problems.”

Proposition 19 would effectively legalize marijuana possession for personal use while Measure S would authorize a half-cent tax increase to go toward the construction of a new Santa Barbara jail.

Both will be on the Santa Barbara County ballot this coming November.

“We are working for a therapeutic drug policy,” Bergman said. “Lives are at stake and we are losing our children to the war on drugs and addiction. We need an end to prohibition. People should not be criminalized for drug addiction. We cannot punish our way out of this problem, we need more therapeutic, as opposed to punitive measures”

Currently, the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s department runs the Sheriff’s Treatment Program (STP), a drug and alcohol counseling program.

The county also runs the pre-conviction Substance Abuse Treatment Court, which allows serious drug offenders to undertake treatment in order earn a dismissal of their charges.

Yet, there is a 2-to-3 month waiting list for the STP and, according to the Santa Barbara Task Force on Co-Occurring Disorders, three out of four who apply don’t get in.

The Sheriff’s Blue Ribbon Commission on Prison Overcrowding of 2008, cites this lack of access and states that it is a result of the overcrowding problem.

Measure S would also provide up to $5 million for programs which attempt to prevent recidivism.

Riordan acknowledges the funding for recidivism prevention included in Measure S, but says that it is “not addressing mental health problems.”

“Building another jail does not address the real causes of jail overcrowding,” she said. “We need to overhaul our criminal justice system with an emphasis on treatment, not incarceration.”

“There are alternatives to incarceration,” she said.

In a video report for the public summarizing the Sheriff’s Blue Ribbon Commission, contributor Dr. Aris Alexander, former consultant to the Wisconsin State Prison System, adds that “mentally ill people are not good for jails and jails are not good for mentally ill people.”

Mental Patients Swamp Unprepared ERs in Sacramento County

2010-10-06T01:03:00.000-07:00

Mental patients swamp unprepared ERs in Sacramento County

By Bobby Caina Calvan and Phillip Reese
bcalvan@sacbee.com
Published: Sunday, Aug. 15, 2010 - 12:00 am | Page 1A
Last Modified: Wednesday, Aug. 18, 2010 - 8:17 am

With fewer places to turn, mental health patients are overwhelming Sacramento County emergency rooms – increasing wait times, straining law enforcement and exposing the limited ability of ERs to deal with serious mental disorders.

Last fall, Sacramento County shuttered its mental health crisis stabilization unit, the main facility for serving the community's emergency mental health needs, particularly for the uninsured and poor. ERs quickly saw their traffic jump.

During the first three months of 2010, about 4,100 patients with a primary diagnosis involving a mental disorder visited emergency rooms in the county – up 30 percent from a year ago and 55 percent from 2007, according to data from the California Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development.

A mental health patient now arrives in a Sacramento County emergency room every 30 minutes, on average. One in every four arrives with a psychotic disorder, according to state data.

"It's caused a major disruption in this county," said Scott Seamons, the regional vice president for the Hospital Council of Northern and Central California.
"Hospital emergency rooms aren't licensed to provide psychiatric care. They are not equipped nor do they have the staff to provide that care on a routine basis," he said.

Emergency departments must divert staff to keep a constant eye on mental health patients. As a result, wait times at ERs have increased.

What's more, many mental health patients are uninsured, raising costs for everyone else.

In 2008, the latest data available, one in five ER patients in Sacramento County with a primary diagnosis of mental disorder had no insurance – about 50 percent higher than the uninsured rate among all ER patients, state data show. That ratio may have gone up with the recent service cuts, since many patients using public mental health facilities are poor.

Besides closing the crisis unit, the county has cut the number of beds at its inpatient treatment facility from 100 to 50.

"If there is an emergency – either medical or psychiatric, the community is being informed to call 911 or go to the nearest emergency room," county spokeswoman Laura McCasland said in an e-mail.

Last month, a federal judge temporarily blocked the county's plan for further mental health cuts. The judge's order bars the county from switching Medi-Cal patients to a controversial new system of outpatient care.

The county wants to transfer as many as 4,000 patients from private community treatment programs to county-run clinics. The move could save millions but would uproot many from programs they have relied on for years.

"We live in a time when there are dwindling resources for people in need of mental health care," said John Boyd, who oversees mental health services for Sutter Health's Sacramento Sierra region.

"Emergency rooms are doing an incredible job stepping up to handle the crisis. We are working as hard as possible," he said.

Wait stretches into days

When Anna Davis had a mental health crisis in May, she discovered how ill-equipped emergency rooms are to deal with patients like her.

"It was torture," she said of her 36-hour ordeal in Sutter General's emergency room.

Davis, who has struggled with bipolar and personality disorders for much of her life, was overwhelmed when she sought help at Sutter. "I was going to do something," said Davis, who is covered by Medi-Cal.

Davis arrived at the hospital at 5 a.m. Her only constant company for the next day and a half were security guards making sure she didn't hurt herself.

"I couldn't get any of my medicine. I felt like I was put in a room and left," Davis said.

When she asked why it was taking so long to get treatment, she was told by staff that the emergency room was busy, she said, adding that people were "very nice," but distracted by their other duties.

It was a different story when Davis went to a county mental health facility a few years ago in an emergency. She was attended to quickly, she recalled. "I felt safe."

Once homeless, Davis is now living with her fiancé and hoping to go back to work. She's doing better, she said, but worries about the eroding public network she had relied on in the past. "It's the people who don't have anything that are going to be hurt," she said.

Hospitals have tried to train staff to deal with the influx of mental health patients.

"There are a lot more stressed out people out there," said Catherine Geraty Hoag, director of social services for the area's Mercy hospitals.

"We're doing the best we can. We've had to look at security needs. We try to put the person with mental health issues in the safest place. We've done education for our staff … to train them to work with people who are depressed or psychotic," she said.

Police strained by trend

Emergency rooms, however, aren't designed to accommodate mental health patients who might pose a risk to themselves or others. There are no isolation rooms, and "we can't provide that intensive care against a person's will … unless they're a danger to themselves," she said.

In the past year, a few local hospitals have seen increases in the number of reported assaults. Some staff and patients have expressed concern.

"The general public really could get hurt," Davis said.

Kathryn Kleinman, a therapist who helps run the Genesis Program at Loaves & Fishes near downtown Sacramento, said it's become much more difficult these days to get a mental health patient involuntarily held for observation.

"I cannot get a hold without someone standing there with a knife to their throat because the police don't want to sit with someone (in the emergency room) for hours," Kleinman said.

Once inside the hospital, the burden of paperwork can consume hours, said Sgt. Norm Leong, spokesman for the Sacramento Police Department.

It used to be an in-and-out process lasting a mere five minutes at the county's facility. Hospitals usually take about 30 minutes to process a mental health admission, and the process can sometimes require as long as two or three hours, Leong said. "You're taking officers off the street and potentially delaying response time to emergencies."

Leong said there are no easy solutions, although his department is taking part in discussions with hospitals, the county and other interested parties to address what most acknowledge already borders on a crisis.

"Every hospital, including UC Davis, has really worked hard to come up with better ways to treat psych patients," said Carol Robinson, chief nursing officer at the medical center, which has seen a 61.6 percent increase in ER mental health cases in the past year. "It's so complex. … Mental health has so many different aspects of care."

Read more: http://www.sacbee.com/2010/08/15/2959681/mental-patients-swamp-unprepared.html#ixzz11Z0b8RE9

Moms Unite to End the War on Drugs

2010-09-14T01:31:00.000-07:00

Huffington Post
April 29, 2010

Please join together now and lead the charge to end drug prohibition, just as a previous generation of mothers did to end to alcohol Prohibition in the 1930s. Now is the time to demand an end to the pointless and punitive criminalization of people who use drugs -- whether they are our children or our neighbor's children -- and the needless violence and death caused by the illegal drug trade.

We're starting that movement in San Diego.

Mothers, family members and people in recovery gathered in San Diego yesterday evening to bring focus to our country's failed drug policies and the damage they've done to our families. The rally and vigil kicked off a statewide campaign to stop the overdose deaths, mass incarceration and prohibition-related violence that are the result of our country's punitive and discriminatory drug policies.

We are joining together because we see, from our own families' experiences, that the war on drugs is doing much more harm than good.

As the drug war rages on, our loved ones' drug problems are neglected. Prevention, harm reduction and treatment programs are tiny and getting smaller as funding is cut. More than 26,000 lives are lost to the preventable tragedy of accidental drug overdose every year in the U.S., making accidental drug overdose the leading cause of injury-related death for people between the ages of 35-54 and the second-leading cause of injury-related death for young people. This crisis now claims more lives each year than firearms, homicides and HIV/AIDS.

Instead of actually addressing our loved ones' drug problems, the country spends billions to incarcerate them for nothing more than drug possession. Over 1.8 million people were arrested on a drug charge in the U.S. in 2008 alone -- 1.4 million of them for possession, not sales, manufacturing or trafficking. Nearly half of all drug arrests in 2008 were for a marijuana violation. Thanks in large part to the drug war, one in 32 American adults is either incarcerated, on parole or probation or under some other form of state or local supervision.

What's worse: they are never forgiven. When they come home, they face life-long exclusions, including the permanent loss of educational and employment opportunities, as well as public housing, food stamps and, in many states, the right to vote. Ultimately, what we see in our families is that addiction may be easier to overcome than a criminal record.

At the same time as our children are needlessly suffering and dying in the U.S., Mexico has ramped up its own U.S.-inspired drug war to the detriment of families there. Since 2007, prohibition-related violence has exploded in Mexico. Over 22,700 people have been killed in the last three years in the ongoing battle with drug cartels, which may generate as much as 60 percent of their profits from the marijuana trade alone. Unfortunately, this battle shows no signs of slowing.

Mothers must speak up now and demand that the U.S. and Mexico end this failed war on drugs -- a war waged on our families - and instead invest in a health-centered approach to drug use.
In California, moms have a major opportunity to end mass arrests of our children and to fight prohibition-relation violence by passing an initiative in November this year to decriminalize marijuana and regulate it like alcohol. With one vote, we can dramatically reduce drug arrests in this state and take massive amounts of profits away from drug cartels.

Together, mothers can end the neglect and destruction of the drug war. We have to. Our families and our children are at stake.

We don't have to start from scratch. Eleven years ago, a group of parents in San Diego founded A New PATH (Parents for Addiction Treatment & Healing) to advocate for therapeutic drug policies. In over a decade, we've worked hard to expand access to drug treatment and opportunities for treatment instead of incarceration. We've learned that moms -- and dads and others who care -- can achieve great things together, including the passage of Proposition 36, California's landmark treatment-instead-of-incarceration law, in 2000.

It's time to demand more and we need your help. Join us.

Viewpoints: State's Sentencing Laws Flood Jails and Prisons

2010-09-14T01:03:00.000-07:00

Mar. 7, 2010
Viewpoints: State's sentencing laws flood jails and prisons
By Ward Connerly
Special to The Bee

Imagine you decided to draw a bath, turned on the water, and then left the room to answer the phone. When you returned five minutes later the tub was overflowing. What would you do first? Turn off the water streaming into the bath or open the drain a crack? Of course, you'd turn off the water to stop the flooding from getting worse.

Now, imagine a corrections system overflowing with prisoners. How much good is releasing prisoners early without doing something to slow down the flood of people entering the system?

This scenario describes the problem and choice confronting California. Laws requiring lengthy prison sentences for nonviolent offenders, and mindless minimum sentences imposed under the state's "two-strikes" and "three-strikes" laws, have contributed to an overcrowded prison system. Confronted by a court order to reduce its prison population and a budget crisis requiring steep spending cutsCalifornia has made the mistake of opening the drain a crack while leaving the spigot wide open. across the board,

A new state law will provide for the release of approximately 6,500 prisoners over the next year. Local officials must recalculate how they plan to shorten sentences for good behavior and other credits. These recalculations will lead the state to release eligible offenders early. Offenders convicted of serious, violent or sex crimes are not eligible. The measure will purportedly save the state more than $100 million.

California's secretary of corrections called the law a "win-win situation" because it will cut down on recidivism and allow parole agents to focus attention on more-dangerous former convicts. Sentencing-reform advocates, including Families Against Mandatory Minimums, a nonpartisan advocacy group that opposes one-size-fits-all sentencing laws, could only shake their heads at such a statement.

If the secretary is right, then why were these 6,500 people sentenced to such long terms in the first place? Wouldn't it make more sense to assess risk and recidivism factors and make those part of the sentencing calculation? Unfortunately, California's mandatory-sentencing laws prohibit such sensible reckoning.

Mandatory minimums in California, as elsewhere, impose mandatory prison time on offenders who might be better served by shorter sentences, drug treatment or other graduated sanctions.

There are more than 41,000 prisoners serving time under California's "two-strikes" and "three-strikes" laws; two-thirds of whom did not commit crimes against people. Many are housed in maximum-security prisons that cost taxpayers an average of $31,000 per prisoner per year. It is these laws that created California's prison morass and led to the current attempt to address it through the early expulsion of prisoners.

But some California law enforcement officials don't see early release as a way out of the crisis. They are expressing (and stoking) fears that the release will lead to a new crime wave. They quickly found their poster child in Kevin Peterson. Peterson was charged with attempted rape just 12 hours after being released.

"Our greatest fear has been realized," said the head of a crime victims' advocacy group. And the Sacramento County Deputy Sheriffs' Association seized on the Peterson arrest and filed a lawsuit to stop further releases.

Those of us who support reform of California's harsh sentencing laws appreciate the concerns raised by law enforcement and victims-rights organizations.

The problem, however, lies not in the fact that some people will serve shorter prison sentences, but rather in California's motivation, approach and execution. Hasty action in the throes of a legal and budgetary firestorm is not the way to make sound policy.

To be fair, the alleged new crime of Kevin Peterson cannot be blamed on the new law. After all, Peterson's release was accelerated a mere 16 days by the new program. But his case raises questions about whether the law should have applied to someone, like Peterson, who had previously committed violent felonies but was serving his current sentence for violating parole, which is considered a nonviolent offense.

Questions also have arisen about how to implement the law. In the wake of Peterson's latest arrest, Attorney General Jerry Brown suggested the law should not be applied retroactively, a view that seems likely to reduce the savings the law was expected to achieve.

California's release program, however necessary and well-intentioned, is not going to solve the state's prison-overcrowding problem. It's the equivalent of trying to stop the tub from overflowing by slightly opening the drain.

The state (and the federal government) must enact permanent, front-end reforms that will reduce the flow of prisoners into the system. At the top of that list should be repeal of all mandatory-minimum-sentence laws, including the fatally flawed "three-strikes" law.

Sheriffs Want Database of Prescription Drug Users

2010-09-14T00:45:00.000-07:00

(NaturalNews Opinion Piece)

Sheriffs in North Carolina are petitioning state legislators to be given access to the database of patients who are in possession of powerful prescription painkillers and other controlled substances. The state sheriff's association fronted the idea last week, saying it would help them make more arrests of people who illegally sell prescription narcotics (painkillers), almost all of which are acquired through doctor prescriptions of FDA-approved drugs.

Astonishingly, almost 30 percent of North Carolina residents received a controlled substance prescription drug this year alone. That means the sheriff's drug database, if granted, would give law enforcement details of the medication habits of 3 out of every 10 residents in the state.

Read the rest of the piece at http://www.naturalnews.com/029736_sheriffs_drug_database.html

Corrections Quandary: Mental Illness and Prison Rules

2010-09-06T23:23:00.000-07:00

The number of incarcerated men and women with severe mental illness has grown so tremendously in the last few decades that prisons may now be the largest mental health providers in the United States. Yet U.S. prisons are not designed or equipped for mentally ill prisoners. Prison conditions are hard on mental health in general, because of overcrowding, violence, lack of privacy, lack of meaningful activities, isolation from family and friends, uncertainty about life after prison, and inadequate health ser- vices.1 The impact of these problems is worse for prisoners whose thinking and emotional responses are impaired by schizophrenia, bipolar disease, major depression, and other serious mental illnesses. The mentally ill in prison also face inadequate mental health services that leave them under-treated or mistreated. In addition, poor mental health services leave many prisoners receiving, as Thomas C. O’Bryant points out, inappropriate kinds or amounts of psychotropic medication that further impairs their ability to function.

There is an inherent tension between the security mission of prisons and mental health considerations. The formal and informal rules and codes of conduct in prison reflect staff concerns about security, safety, power, and control. Coordinating the needs of the mentally ill with those rules and goals is nearly impossible.

Read the full essay at ttp://www.law.harvard.edu/students/orgs/crcl/vol41_2/fellner.pdf

International Overdose Awareness Day

2010-09-01T01:16:00.000-07:00

International Overdose Awareness Day

Dear friends,

Today in the US, there's already been a huge burst of activity in support of Overdose Awareness Day. Rallies & press conferences are happening in places like San Francisco and Hartford. Op-eds about Overdose Awareness Day are running on blogs & websites like Alternet.
People from around the world have been "tweeting" on Twitter for hours using the tag #od10 in their messages about overdose. And candlelight vigils are being held in dozens of communities tonight.

Thousands of people are coming together today to remember the lives of people they loved and still miss desperately. People are coming together in sorrow and grief, helping each other heal; people are coming together in frustration and anger, demanding their local government make naloxone available and pass a Good Samaritan 911 policy to make it safe for people to call for help if they witness an overdose. People come together in dozens of different ways today--to achieve different things, to remember different people--but all fundamentally for the same thing:

To draw attention to the fact that overdose death is preventable if we actually DO something about it.

Do you have teenagers? Do they know the deadliest combinations of drugs and alcohol? Do you? Do they know what to do if they see someone overdosing? Do you? Do they know what naloxone is and how it's used to save someone overdosing on an opiate like heroin or OxyContin? Do you?

The only way we can get our hands around the overdose crisis is to teach ourselves and our loved ones how to prevent, recognize and respond to an overdose--and to demand our legislators pass policies that make it safe for people to call for lifesaving help without fearing arrest. We can urge Congress to take action on the Drug Overdose Reduction Act. We can ask our local public health department if naloxone is available and if not, how can you make that happen?

I encourage you to check the Purple Ribbons for Overdose Prevention Facebook Cause page frequently. You'll find recent stories in the news about overdose, as well as links to actions you can take to help reduce overdose fatalities. You'll find people grieving their loved ones and posting stories about them as a tribute. You can be more involved with people just like you who care about this issue.

Meghan Ralston, cause creator

U.S. House Unanimously Passes Legislation Creating National Commission to Reduce Incarceration and Reform the Criminal Justice System

2010-07-31T00:28:00.000-07:00

The U.S. House of Representatives passed bipartisan legislation tonight sponsored by Rep. William Delahunt (D-MA) which would create a national commission to study the U.S. criminal justice system and make recommendations for reform. The bill passed under an expedited process that presumes unanimity unless a member of Congress objects. No member objected.

"It is a sign of how quickly the tide has turned against punitive criminal justice policies that this bill passed without opposition," said Bill Piper, director of national affairs for the Drug Policy Alliance. "Prisons are overflowing at great taxpayer expense, in large part because of the failed war on drugs, and members of Congress are finally saying enough is enough, we need ideas for reform."

The bill comes at a time that the United State's growing prison population – fueled by the war on drugs - is becoming a political issue. The United States ranks first in the world in per capita incarceration rates, with just five 5 percent of the world's population but 25 percent of the world's prisoners. Roughly 500,000 Americans are behind bars any given night for a drug law violation. That is ten times the total in 1980, and more than all of western Europe (with a much larger population) incarcerates for all offenses.

Across the country – from California to Texas to New York – legislatures, and in some cases voters, are passing legislation to divert offenders to treatment instead of jail, reform mandatory minimum sentencing, and treat drug use more as a health issue instead of criminal justice issue. These efforts – motivated by concerns for saving taxpayer money, reducing racial disparities, and showing more compassion for people struggling with substance abuse problems - are gaining steam.

The House bill is identical to a bill in the U.S. Senate introduced by Sen. Jim Webb (D-VA). That bill has passed the Senate Judiciary Committee and will most likely be voted on in the full Senate sometime this year. Sen. Webb (D-VA) has said, "either we have the most evil people in the world or we are doing something wrong with the way we approach the issue of criminal justice." And "the central role of drug policy in filling our nation's prisons makes clear that our approach to curbing illegal drug use is broken."

It is widely believed that the national commission created by Sen. Webb's and Rep. Delahunt's legislation would make recommendations for reducing incarceration, reforming U.S. drug policy, eliminating racial and gender disparities, improving re-entry efforts, and expanding access to substance abuse treatment, mental health services and health care.

"The House has spoken decisively. Now it is time for Senators to act," Piper said. "Sen. Webb's and Rep. Delahunt's bipartisan commission legislation needs to be passed quickly before the war on drugs and punitive criminal justice system bankrupt our country and destroy more lives."

###

For Your Kids

2010-07-29T20:06:00.000-07:00

As a person in long-term recovery and a drug treatment professional, I know a thing or two about drugs, addiction and the drug war. As a mother and a grandmother, I know more than I care to about how all of those things affect families - including my own. Addiction is a particularly painful health issue for any family to struggle with. Like most other chronic health conditions, like cancer and diabetes, it can be treated and managed. But unlike other chronic health conditions, our government is at war with it.

The sad truth is that the war on drugs is a war on people, and they can be people you love.

Twenty five years ago I was lucky enough to find sustained recovery after struggling with my own addiction. Now I'm a grandmother of seven and am watching my youngest son struggle with his own addiction. I am hopeful that he will find recovery as I have. Until then, he struggles against decades of stigma and harmful policies. We aren't just battling addiction; we're battling the barbaric policies that continue to criminalize this medical disorder that I share with my son - and tens of thousands of other Californians. In tight economic times, it's getting harder and harder to find a place where my son can access drug treatment.

Why is it so hard to find treatment, when - somehow - there always seems to be room in jail? Why, when our state has to cut spending, it cuts drug treatment but not incarceration spending? (Drug treatment costs less than $5,000 per person; a year in prison costs almost $50,000 per person.)

Our government's response to drug addiction has moved in the wrong direction. A century ago addiction once was something handled by one's private doctor and family. By the 1980s, somehow we had decided that people who struggled with drugs, including my younger self and my son, were criminals?

Unfortunately, our drug policies are still stuck in the stone ages of the drug war-crazy 1980s. They have the veneer of compassion, but, in the end, even when you've done no harm to any one else nor posed any significant risk (like by driving under the influence), the criminal justice system will incarcerate you because of your health problem.

There is no other health condition that is criminalized this way. And it remains criminalized even as the American (and global) medical community have reached consensus that drug use and addiction are health issues.

For parents, this rejection of the medical approach for the criminal approach has become the stuff nightmares are made of. Our children were denied real prevention; instead they were force-fed "Just Say No" slogans and scare tactics that the government's own research found ineffective and counter-productive. Our children were kicked out of school under zero-tolerance policies that pushed the most vulnerable kids out of school and onto the streets rather than provide the help they needed. Our children had little or no access to drug treatment - but were dragged into the criminal justice system at rapidly increasingly rates. Our children died of preventable overdoses, because friends failed to call 911 for fear of arrest.

So-called experts infected our families with this zero-tolerance approach, teaching us to show our love by rejecting our children. We were told we would save our children's lives if we turned them in to the police. But calling the police only made matters worse. Drug treatment is not available for the vast majority of people in jails and prisons - but drugs are. And it's far easier to leave behind a drug addiction than it is a criminal record.

So what's a mother to do?

I say it's time for mothers (and fathers) to say enough is enough. We are smarter, more educated than we used to be. We see what works and what doesn't - and the war on drugs just doesn't work.

As a treatment professional, a recovering person, a mother of a former inmate and parolee, and a grandmother of seven, I say the time to end this failure of a drug war is NOW.

Join me and others' moms (and loved ones) to call for an end to this madness. Work with us to get our loved ones the support they need and the policies that would support - not demonize - them. At a rally in Los Angeles this week, Moms United to End the War on Drugs will demand an end to this war on our families. Join us!

Julia Negron, who is in long-term recovery, is a mother and grandmother with 15 years in the addiction treatment field. She is also a member of A New PATH (Parents for Addiction Treatment and Healing) and a founding member of Moms United to End the War on Drugs.

© 2010 Independent Media Institute. All rights reserved.
View this story online at: http://www.alternet.org/story/147680/

Ken Williams: Homeless Deaths in Santa Barbara, A Shocking Statistic

2010-07-12T00:59:00.000-07:00

So far this year, at least 19 of our neighbors who have been pushed to the streets by personal demons, war, untreated and mistreated mental health issues, the disease of addiction, illnesses, injuries and the fallout from the Great Recession have died — a truly disheartening statistic. We need to keep in mind that, in comparison, 27 homeless people died in all of 2009. The average for the preceding years was in the low twenties. Also in comparison, Santa Monica, a coastal community comparative to our own in population averages 14 homeless deaths yearly.

This march of Death is astounding. I hardly have time to record and verify the avalanche of bad news before reports of yet still more fatalities flood my phone. I found last year’s spike in homeless deaths to be gut wrenching, but this is shocking. Nineteen and we are barely halfway through the year. And, I have another problem with this statistic. It is cold and uncaring — numbers only that do not recognize the flesh and blood — the who of each person in this shameful statistic.

Portugal Experiment in Decriminalizing Drug Possession

2010-04-20T15:52:00.000-07:00

The Biggest Drug Story You’ve Never Heard
Jason Flom & Russell Simmons
April 20, 2010

What would happen if drug use were decriminalized? We’ve heard the horror stories: more drug addiction, more broken families, and crime run amok. We’ve also heard the opposite – that none of those awful things would happen and that we’d actually be better off for not criminalizing what’s really a health issue (and a personal choice).

So who’s right? You might be surprised to hear that this isn’t just about hypotheticals and what if’s anymore.

In 2001, Portugal decriminalized the possession of small amounts of all illicit substances. Having small amounts of drugs is no longer a criminal offence. It’s still against the rules; it just won’t get you thrown in jail or prison. It’s a civil offense – like a ticket. Portugal continues to punish sales and trafficking of illicit substances.

It’s been ten years. Ever wonder why you haven’t heard about the sky falling in Portugal? About out-of-control drug use? About a lost generation of young people? About record crime rates? Well, that’s because – the over-active Icelandic volcano notwithstanding – the sky didn’t fall.

That’s right: Portugal decriminalized possession of all drugs and the sky didn’t fall. Nor does it show any signs of faltering a decade later.

Here’s what did happen: drug use rates remained basically unchanged (like the rest of Europe), while fatal overdose from opiates (like heroin) fell by nearly half, new HIV/AIDS infections in people who inject drugs fell by two-thirds, and the number of people in treatment actually increased.

Decriminalization helped reduce the stigma around drug use (without increasing it) and made drug use less politically difficult to talk about. It encouraged better collaboration between law enforcement and service providers, and allowed law enforcement to focus on large-scale traffickers, resulting in increased seizures of commercial quantities of illicit drugs.

In Portugal’s thoroughly re-envisioned drug policy, police officers now issue citations – but do not arrest – persons found in possession of small amounts of illicit substances. People who receive these citations are ordered to appear at a “dissuasion commission,” an administrative panel that operates outside of the criminal justice system. The panel, with two health practitioners and one legal practitioner, examines the individual’s circumstances and determines whether to make treatment referrals, issue fines or impose other non-criminal penalties.

Portugal has an important story to tell and it’s not just about decriminalization. It’s about a post-criminalization approach to drug policy. Portugal’s 2001 policy shift was much more than just a legal change. It was a government-wide shift to a health approach to drug use, centered on expanding access to prevention, treatment, harm reduction and “social reintegration” services.

In 2001, Portugal’s explicit aim was to adopt an approach to drugs based not on dogmatic moralism and prejudice, but on science and evidence. Portuguese lawmakers recognized that the criminalization was not only failing to effectively control drug use; it was a barrier to protecting individual and public health.

The U.S. should be looking to Portugal and asking not can we replicate their success here? But how can we replicate their success here?
On the health front, the health care legislation that President Obama signed late last month promises to make drug treatment much more widely accessible within the mainstream health care system. (Insurers will be required to cover alcohol and drug treatment as they do treatment for any other chronic condition.) If done right, this could be a major advancement in creating a health approach to drug use in this county.
On criminal penalties, some states are already moving in the right direction by attempting to roll back the most punitive drug sentencing policies. Many of these measures aim to shorten the length of time served for drug law violations or reduce probation and parole revocations for drug use. In New York, the repeal of the worst of the 30-year-old Rockefeller Drug Laws late last year represents an important achievement in this national trend. In California, voters in November will decide whether to legalize marijuana.

These U.S. reforms are all significant, but they fall short of what is needed – and what is possible. Thanks to Portugal, the way forward is a little clearer today.

The Punishment Legacy: Criminalization, Healthcare Reform and Prop. 36

2010-04-16T15:27:00.000-07:00

By Margaret Dooley-Sammuli

The healthcare legislation President Obama signed late last month promises to bring sweeping changes to California’s alcohol and drug treatment system. Not only will more people have access to insurance; heath insurers will be required to cover alcohol and drug treatment as they do any other chronic health condition (aka “parity”). Drug treatment – which currently exists largely outside the mainstream healthcare and insurance systems – may finally be allowed to come in from the cold.

As we work to make that treatment access a reality in California, however, we need to address the state’s existing contradictory policy responses to drug use. Our State Legislature is on record as supporting parity, having passed legislation several times (the governor’s veto notwithstanding). And the electorate is on record as supporting expanded access to treatment, both for alcohol and drugs (Proposition 36 in 2000) and for mental health (Proposition 63 in 2004).

California gets that drug use and addiction as well as co-occurring addiction and mental health issues are fundamentally health problems. And yet we punish.

About 30,000 people are in a California prison for a nonviolent drug offense; they make up over 15% of the prison population and cost $1.5 billion per year to incarcerate (or $49,000 each). A whopping 28.4% of new felony admissions to prison and 32.7% of parolees returning to prison with a new term in 2008 were for drug offenses. That doesn’t include drug-related technical parole revocations. The vast majority of these commitments were for drug possession, not sales, manufacturing or transport.

In 2008, over 270,000 Californians were arrested for a drug offense. In contrast, only 174,000 people accessed treatment that year – just a fraction of the estimated 3.3 million Californians with an alcohol or drug use disorder. Over half of those in treatment in the state came through the criminal justice system, giving rise to the belief that you have to get arrested to get treatment. Unfortunately, fewer and fewer people arrested for a drug offense actually receive such help.

In the last three years alone, state funding for Proposition 36, California’s landmark voter-approved, treatment-instead-of-incarceration law, has been cut by 90% – from $145 million in 2007/8 to just $18 million this year. It’s a simple equation: the less funding available, the less treatment offered and the longer the waiting lists (months long in some cases).

Ten years after voters overwhelmingly passed Prop. 36, calling for treatment rather than incarceration, the governor has proposed eliminating funding for the program. Never mind that, according to UCLA, Prop. 36 saves $2.5-4 for every dollar invested, diverts 36,000 people into treatment a year (when adequately funded), has helped reduce the number of people incarcerated for personal drug possession by 40% (or 8,000 people), and has had no negative impact on crime trends.

As Prop. 36 is cut back, more people are headed to jail and prison for their drug use, even as behind-bars treatment becomes unavailable. Under new California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) regulations, moderate- to high-risk offenders will have priority placement in drug treatment in the state’s prisons. Ironically, drug offenders – most of whom are deemed low risk to public safety – will not receive treatment behind bars or on parole, even if they have a serious drug problem.

The passage of federal healthcare legislation, the repeated passage of parity legislation in this state and even the state’s corrections bureaucracy have all come to the same conclusion: drug use is primarily a health issue, not a high risk to public safety. And yet the state’s penal code continues to criminalize drug use.

Until California can reconcile the discrepancy between health statute and penal code, the Democratic majority in the State Legislature has a responsibility to reduce – in every way that it can – the criminalization and incarceration of people for drug use and addiction. This year that means rejecting the governor’s proposal to defund Proposition 36 treatment programs.

UK Talk Show on U.S. Incarceration Rate

2010-04-16T02:55:00.001-07:00

US Prisons

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8E7wgFcCefE&feature=related

ACLU Forum Wed. April 21, 7 pm: Drugs: Legalization, Civil Liberties, and Incarceration

2010-04-13T12:00:00.000-07:00

ACLU presents: A PUBLIC FORUM ON THE ISSUE "Drugs: Legalization, Civil Liberties, and Incarceration”.

ADMISSION: FREE
TIME: 7:00 PM, Wednesday, April 21, 2010,
PLACE: Faulkner Gallery, Santa Barbara Public Library, 40 E. Anapamu St.

This location is wheel-chair accessible.

WHAT IS HAPPENING:

Experts from law enforcement, from UCSB, and from the community will discuss the legal, constitutional, moral, health, education, and civil rights issues raised by a “War on Drugs” that isn’t working, and by prisons full beyond capacity. The issues discussed will include such topics as drug policies that criminalize youth and people of color, how the drug “War” impacts other countries, the wastes of drug prosecution, and community responses to these educational and social problems.

There will be an audience question and answer period.

WHO IS ON THE PROGRAM:

The speakers include:

· Damien Schnyder, post-doctoral fellow in the UCSB Department of Black Studies, researcher of the U.S. prison industrial complex.
· Kyle Kazan of LEAP, Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (www.leap.cc) a former Torrance, California police officer.
· Suzanne Riordan, founder of Families ACT, a non-profit organization that advocates for treatment rather than jail for people with drug problems and mental illness

The moderator will be Cathy Murillo, Santa Barbara ACLU Program Committee Chair

Damien M. Schnyder is a University of California President’s postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Black Studies, at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Having received a BA and MA from Stanford, he received his Ph. D. from the University of Texas at Austin. He has conducted research on the relationship between the public education system, the prison industrial complex, and Black masculinity in Southern California.

Kyle Kazan is a former Torrance, CA police officer and an expert in gang and drug identification and eradication. As a foot soldier in the “War on Drugs”, he has important insights into the futility and waste of drug prohibition, having seen the same people come through the system again and again. He is associated with LEAP (Law Enforcement Against Prohibition), and is a graduate of the University of Southern California.

Suzanne Riordan is founder and executive director of Santa Barbara-based Families ACT, a non-profit organization which advocates for compassionate treatment rather than incarceration for people with mental health and substance use disorders (www.familiesact.org). It helps families navigate the complexities of the criminal justice system and the meager treatment resources and it seeks to educate the community about the need for new approaches to the complex issues surrounding co-occurring disorders. She holds a BA in International Relations from the University of Washington and an MA in Education from UCSB.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

For additional information and/or public relations materials about this or other ACLU events, including photographs, Contact:
P.O. Box 30645, Santa Barbara, CA 93130, Phone to 805-252-3012 , Email: cathymurillo@cox.net,

International Chiefs of Police, Sens. Webb, Hatch, Specter & Graham Urge Senate Vote on National Criminal Justice Commission Act

2010-04-06T01:20:00.000-07:00

Excerpts from: International Chiefs of Police, Sens. Webb, Hatch, Specter & Graham Urge Senate Vote on National Criminal Justice Commission Act
March 9, 2010
Washington, DC— Members of the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) from across the nation today joined Senator Jim Webb (D-VA) and leading Judiciary Committee members, Senators Orrin Hatch (R-UT), Arlen Specter (D-PA), and Lindsey Graham (R-SC), to push for final passage of the National Criminal Justice Commission Act, S. 714. The legislation, introduced by Senator Webb on March 26, 2009, was voted out of the Judiciary Committee January 19, and awaits a vote on the Senate floor.

The National Criminal Justice Commission Act of 2010, which would create a blue-ribbon commission charged with comprehensively reviewing the nation’s criminal justice system and offering concrete recommendations for reform, has gained the bipartisan support of 35 members of the Senate and endorsements from over 100 organizations representing a broad spectrum of the criminal justice community.

The IACP is the oldest and largest non-profit membership organization of police executives, with more than 22,000 members in over 100 countries. For more than 20 years, the IACP has advocated for the creation of a commission that would follow in the footsteps of the 1965 presidential commission on law enforcement and the administration of justice.

“I am very grateful to the International Association of Chiefs of Police for having entered into a dialogue with us about how to improve our approach, and for throwing their support behind this important legislation,” said Senator Webb. “We started with two pieces of reality: we have by far the world’s largest incarceration rate—with 5% of the world’s population and 25% of the world’s prison population—and, at the same time, Americans will tell you that they don’t feel any safer today than they did a year ago.”

To read more about the National Criminal Justice Commission Act, please visit:http://webb.senate.gov/issuesandlegislation/Criminal_Justice_Banner.cfm

To download photos of today’s event, visit:http://webb.senate.gov/photos/photogallery/S714_Rally_for_Final_Vote.cfm

To read the February 13, 2010 New York Times editorial, “A Blue Ribbon Look at Criminal Justice,” visit:http://webb.senate.gov/newsroom/newsarticles/02-13-2010-01.cfm

To watch a highlight video from today's event, please visit:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5niWyJ_uttE

Uninsured Mental Health Patients Face Service Cuts

2010-04-04T03:27:00.000-07:00

Uninsured Mental Health Patients Face Service Cuts
March 29, 2010
By Lara Cooper, Noozhawk Staff Writer

Alcohol, Drug and Mental Health Services reduces available beds and other assistance to save money

Uninsured people suffering from mental illness have fewer places to seek treatment after a set of decisions made two weeks ago by Santa Barbara County Alcohol, Drug and Mental Health Services.

More than 400 patients per year are transported to Vista del Mar, a psychiatric hospital in Ventura, to be checked in involuntarily because of a lack of facilities in Santa Barbara, but ADMHS has reduced the number of its contract beds with the hospital to save money.

Reducing the beds from 12 to five for uninsured patients would save about $800,000 a year for ADMHS.

ADMHS has provided services to more than 1,300 patients who are medically indigent, meaning they have no health insurance. That cost of care amounted to nearly $3.5 million, just within the first six months of the 2009-10 fiscal year. It also funded outreach services to 400 indigent adults who were deemed to be a danger to themselves or others because of mental illness.

But looking ahead, things look much worse for the department’s 2010-11 funding, which is expected to be affected by dwindling state and general fund revenues.

According to documents from the department, ADMHS has determined it needs to shave off at least $2 million in spending for services for the indigent.

In addition to capping the beds at Vista del Mar for the uninsured, services also will be discontinued for 600 to 900 indigent people receiving treatment services through Fund 44.

The department will keep “very limited medication management support” for 300 of the 900 indigent adults who are currently served, and the priority will go to those most affected by mental illness.

According to ADMHS documents, the changes were effective March 15, which for some raises the question of why the change wasn’t approved by the Board of Supervisors.

“They’re implementing policies before they’ve been approved,” said Roger Thompson, who sits on the Mental Health Commission and who leads the Consumer Advocacy Coalition.

If beds continue to be capped, Thompson predicts a dramatic increase in people flooding emergency rooms.

“We’re going to get huge backlash from the hospitals, and that’s going to cost us more in the long run,” he said. “This is a direct immediate threat to this community on so many levels. We’re facing a potential catastrophe.”

One of the first places most likely to be affected by the change would be hospital emergency rooms.

Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital sees 250 to 300 people per month enter the emergency room for issues involving substance abuse and mental health, spokeswoman Janet O’Neill said.

She said that since the cap was put in place only two weeks ago, it’s too soon to say whether there’s been an increase, but she added that the hospital has seen a steady increase in patients seeking psychiatric and substance abuse help during the past five years.

“We do feel that this cap is probably going to have severe impact on the length of stay,” she said.

ADMHS Director Ann Dietrich acknowledged that there’s a great need for beds for involuntary care, but that the department just doesn’t have the money.

She said that in the past, the department has amended its contracts with Vista del Mar when money has been an issue or demand changes. In this case, the demand is still high, but the department has reached what Dietrich called its “contract capacity.”

“We’re seeing very clearly with the budget situation that we really can’t exceed that,” she said, but she wasn’t clear about why the decrease in beds this month hadn’t gone before the Board of Supervisors for approval.

Dietrich is expected to go over the details of the 2010-11 budget at Tuesday’s Mental Health Commission meeting, from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. in the Ball Room of Hotel Corque, 400 Alisal Road in Solvang.

— Noozhawk staff writer Lara Cooper can be reached at lcooper@noozhawk.com.

http://www.noozhawk.com/noozhawk/article/032910_mental_health/

ADMHS Fiasco

2010-04-04T03:20:00.000-07:00

Dog Daze in the Afternoon
Angry Poodle Barbecue
Thursday, April 1, 2010
by NICK WELSH

DON’T CALL ME, I’LL CALL YOU: It seems that the folks running the county’s Mental Health Services — officially known as Department of Alcohol, Drug, and Mental Health Services — have embraced their inner “Never Explain, Never Complain” modus operandi, first popularized by former auto magnate Henry Ford II, who allegedly coined the phrase while drunkenly driving through Santa Barbara and crashing his car — not a Ford, by the way — while in the company of a woman conspicuously not his wife. A car wreck, it appears, is an apt metaphor for Mental Health Services, which despite the heroic efforts of many dedicated employees over the years, has long been the poster child for bureaucratic euthanasia. In recent years, the situation there has gone from bad to unbearable. The rate of turnover among top managers is enough to induce whiplash, and money flies out 20 times faster than it comes back in. Even without the convenient excuse of the state budget meltdown, Mental Health has had its own independently generated fiscal nightmare — to the tune of $25 million. This stems from hyper-optimistic billing practices that allowed delusional department managers to think the state would be paying them a whole lot more than they were entitled to. Actually, it’s even worse than not getting money that you expected. It’s having to pay back what you did get. If that wasn’t bad enough, Mental Health executives announced — halfway into this year’s budget — they had sprung a $3.3-million budget leak. Somehow, costs had to be controlled. If I were running that show, I certainly wouldn’t want to talk about it. And even less would I want to talk about new treatment protocols I’d devised for the poorest of the poor — chucking them overboard. Presumably, if these can float, then they’re cured. And if they can’t, I guess we won’t have to listen to them screaming and hollering up and down State Street anymore.

With a conspicuous lack of fanfare or even a modicum of public notice, Mental Health executives enacted a series of cuts two weeks ago designed to save the department $2.4 million. They did not ask. They did not tell. And certainly, the county Supervisors never approved these cuts. In the process, up to 900 indigent mentally ill found themselves either cut off from services they’d previously received or had those services curtailed in significant fashion. Lara Cooper of Noozhawk did an excellent job reporting how Mental Health administrators cut the county’s allocation to secure desperately needed mental health beds in Ventura’s Vista del Mar facility by more than half. Normally, Santa Barbara reserves 12 beds for Santa Barbara residents in desperate need. Translated into actual lives, that means 236 of the 400 people whom Santa Barbara typically sends to Vista del Mar every year will now be at loose ends when they reach their breaking point. Where do you suppose they will go when that happens? If we’re lucky, they’ll have the good sense to check themselves into the Cottage ER. But if we’re not, the SWAT team could be busy.

Likewise, Mental Health has put a serious lid on treating people with both substance-abuse and mental disorders. Or, as one county social worker put it, “If you blow numbers, they won’t do 5150 assessments anymore.” The code 5150 refers to the state policy allowing involuntary psychiatric holds on individuals who pose a threat either to themselves or to others. “Blowing numbers” refers to testing positive for drugs or alcohol. Given that people in extreme distress are inclined to medicate themselves into obliteration, this new policy is clearly problematic. It’s not so much a case of closing the barn door after the horses have gone as it is of locking the barn door with the horses inside, while the barn is burning down. Last time I spent any time hanging around the Cottage ER, it seemed plenty busy and plenty eccentric already. Beyond that, Mental Health Services officials have decided to stop providing services for low-income people too messed up to apply for Medicaid assistance. This is a universe of several hundred troubled souls.

Budget cuts of these magnitudes easily qualify simultaneously as “turd-in-the-punch-bowl” and “skunk-at-the-garden-party.” At a minimum, people should have been alerted that they’re happening. Better yet, maybe somebody should have been consulted before the fact. The cuts were implemented effective March 15. One day later, the county’s Mental Health Commission convened somewhere in the Santa Ynez Valley, mutually inconvenient to almost all the stakeholders involved. Strikingly, the issue never came up. The advisory commission appointed by the county Supervisors to give advice on mental health concerns was never told or asked about the cuts. Is it possible that was an oversight? This Tuesday, the Mental Health Commission met again, also in the Santa Ynez Valley. I don’t know what happened. But the timing couldn’t have been more piquantly propitious. It turns out that at the same time, the Santa Barbara City Council had scheduled a discussion of some 12-point program to deal with the aggressive panhandlers, the chronically obstreperous, the habitually inebriated, and others disinclined to go quietly into anybody’s long good night. Given that the indigent and mentally ill feature prominently in this population, many of the key mental health stakeholders found themselves intensely conflicted as to where they should be. Was it possible that was a scheduling oversight, as well? Some in the mental health advocacy community don’t think so. But of course, they could just be paranoid. And unfortunately, with all the not-so-quiet cuts being made to Mental Health Services, it’s not likely they’ll be getting the treatment they need. And when that happens, the least of our problems will be aggressive panhandlers. In the meantime, how ’bout spare change for the mentally ill?

Drugs and Prison: The American Disgrace

2010-04-04T02:46:00.000-07:00

For years, drug policy discussions have foundered on a fundamental dilemma: If illegal and addictive drugs are freely available in the nation’s prison system—and there is no one who says otherwise—then how can we as a society expect to control the consumption of drugs outside the prison walls? Moreover, should people be jailed at all for simple possession?

In 1982, President Ronald Reagan inaugurated the “war on drugs." From 1980 to 1997, writes Glenn C. Loury in his book Race, Incarceration, and American Values, the number of people in prison for drug offenses increased more than 1,000 %. Only one out of five drug convictions involved any sort of distribution beyond simple possession, says Loury, although there is often dispute about these numbers and how they are derived.

In “Can Our Shameful Prisons Be Reformed?” which appeared in the November 19 issue of the New York Review of Books, David Cole argues that African-Americans “have borne the brunt of this war.” While white drug offenders in prison increased by more than 100 % from 1985 to 1991, the prison population of black drug offenders soared by 465 %. Citing figures from The Sentencing Project, Cole asks whether we are willing to accept “a system in which one out of every three black males born today can expect to spend time in jail during his life?”

America’s prison disgrace is everyone’s problem, however. Cole informs us that a new prison is opened in the U.S. every week, and that imprisoning someone costs $20,000 a year and up. We spend $7 billion on jails in 1980. Today, writes Cole, the figure is $60 billion.

Where are we going wrong? The answer is straightforward, and unavoidable: The War on Drugs. According to FBI crime statistics cited by Cole, the U.S. last year arrested 1.7 million people for drug crimes. “Since 1989, more people have been incarcerated for drug offenses than for all violent crimes combined,” writes Cole. “Yet much like Prohibition, the war on drugs has not ended or even significantly diminished drug use.” In addition, “about half of property crime, robberies, and burglaries are attributable to the inflated cost of drugs caused by criminalizing them.”

At the heart of the problem lies a long-standing dilemma. The American prison system does next to nothing for drug addicts, except assure them of a steady supply. The justice system does not systematically help drug addicts avoid prison, or reintegrate them into society when they get out. And, since a high number of chronic drug abusers also suffer from other mental disorders, the lack of consistent, well-funded, effective programs for ex-offenders virtually guarantees a revolving-door cycle of repeated incarcerations. For those drug felons who are not themselves addicts, and who are in prison due to simple possession charges, a program of mass parole would ease prison crowding significantly. There is really no reason why many of the prisoners in this class should have been locked up at all, but for draconian legislation passed in the heat of passion—like New York’s Rockefeller laws--about one drug “epidemic” or another.

In addition to converting the swords of the drug war into the ploughshares of job programs, education, and housing assistance, we need to recognize and act upon the obvious fact that young people who are in school are far less likely to end up in prison. Schools are a far more cost-effective solution than prisons. In addition, a RAND Corporation study cited by Cole concluded that treatment is "fifteen times more effective at reducing drug-related crime than incarceration."

In the end, the need for action is undeniable. As Cole writes, “The very fact that the US record is so much worse than that of the rest of the world should tell us that we are doing something wrong.”

http://addiction-dirkh.blogspot.com/2009/12/drugs-and-prison.html

****************

Doctors are part of the problem, says US Deputy Drug Czar McLellan

2010-04-04T02:02:00.000-07:00

In a March 15 cover story titled “The American Way,” Drink and Drugs News of the UK ran an insightful interview with America’s “deputy” Drug Czar, Thomas McLellan. Professor McLellan, deputy director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, is not a cop, like his boss Gil Kerlikowske, or a retired Army general, like former Drug Czar Barry McCaffrey. McLellan is a rare breed, a treatment specialist, and brings an entirely different viewpoint to an office that has traditionally been strongly oriented toward law enforcement.

“In the US we’ve been thinking about addiction as just a lot of drug use,” McLellan told a group of addiction specialists and policy professionals at the Institute of Psychiatry in London. “And as a result we’ve been purchasing [treatment] stupidly. We can’t decide if addiction is a crime or a disease so we’ve compromised and given them treatments that aren’t any good.”

McLellan singled out doctors for special attention: “Most physicians are not trained in how to treat substance abuse. They don’t see it as a disease and don’t see why they should look for it.”

Treating addiction like any other medical condition is still a goal rather than a reality. “You may know that the relapse rates for diabetes, hypertension and asthma are almost identical to the relapse rates for any addictive disorder…. And no one puts their hands on their hips when a diabetic comes back and says, ‘I ate half a bucket of fried chicken and I forgot to take my insulin, and now I’m back here.’ They just treat them.”

If there are doctors who don’t believe in the disease model of addiction, we can’t be surprised if members of the general public—and addicts themselves--often feel the same way. McLellan said that less than 3 % of all referrals for addiction treatment and specialty care originate with doctors. Moreover, roughly half of 12,000 smaller treatment programs in the U.S. have no doctor, nurse, or psychologist on staff. And counselors, who make up the majority of treatment staff, suffer from a 50 % turnover rate.

In addition, McLellan took on the traditional British aversion to methadone treatment for heroin addicts: “That this has been a battle, that you are either on methadone or you are on the path of truth, beauty and light, is artificial and unfortunate…. I’m now officially wagging my finger and saying not just to Britain, but to the whole damn field; get past this, this is an artificial contrivance. People ought to have the opportunity to get the medications and other services they need.”

McLellan also had choice words for politicians and policy makers who see incarceration as the only acceptable response to drugs and drug-related crime. He referenced studies that “suggest very clearly that in a prison situation, when you release somebody with a drug problem, they are back and you’re going to do it all over again. It’s a bad business deal.”

Ongoing care—after prison, or after treatment—is essential to success. “I think residential care is important and necessary, but not sufficient,” McLellan maintained. “It is like having a very good junior high school education.”

Source:
http://addiction-dirkh.blogspot.com/2010/03/deputy-drug-czar-goes-his-own-way.html

******************

Poor Communication In The Brain Linked To Schizophrenia

2010-04-03T01:10:00.000-07:00

By Nadja Popovich

New evidence suggests that schizophrenia can be caused by a lack of synchronization between regions of the brain.

Mice with a genetic defect linked to schizophrenia had trouble navigating through a maze.
In a study, just published in the journal Nature, researchers from Columbia University compared mice bred to have a genetic mutation linked to schizophrenia in humans with healthy mice and found that mutant mice had more trouble completing spatial tasks -- like getting through a maze.

Though most people associate schizophrenia most strongly with hallucinations and delusions, the disease also impairs cognitive abilities, including working memory. The Columbia researchers found that the two regions of the brain associated with working memory in the mutant mice -- the hippocampus and the prefrontal cortex -- weren't communicating the way they do in normal animals.

The short circuit may lend a clue to the causes of schizophrenia in humans.

A Message from Sting

2010-03-31T11:07:00.000-07:00

Whether it's music, activism or daily life, the one ideal to which I
have always aspired is constant challenge -- taking risks, stepping
out of my comfort zone, exploring new ideas.

I believe the United States -- and all of us --
must do precisely that in the case of what has been the most
unsuccessful, unjust yet untouchable issue in politics: the war on
drugs.

The war on drugs has failed -- but it's worse than that. It is
actively harming our society. That is why ending the drug war is a
matter of social justice.

Violent crime is thriving in the shadows to which the drug trade has
been consigned. People who genuinely need help can't get it. .. We
are spending billions, filling up our prisons with non-violent
offenders and sacrificing our liberties.

[An op-ed article in the Wall Street Journal] dared to say in print
-- in a thoughtful, meticulous argument -- what everyone who has
seriously looked at the issue has known for years: the war on drugs
is an absolute failure whose cost to society is increasingly unbearable
and absolutely unjustifiable.

Learn to Cope: support group for parents and family members of someone addicted to heroin, Oxycontin, etc.

2010-03-29T16:40:00.000-07:00

Learn to Cope is a support group for parents and family members dealing with a loved one addicted to heroin, Oxycontin and other drugs. It began in 2004 when I needed a place to go to get support for our family and today our son is alive and well, so there is hope. Currently there is a crisis, an epidemic of OC and Heroin use in Massachusetts. Most of the kids are between 17-26 years old, some start in high school, others have started in college. The rules have changed in society today, because Heroin is now in a snort able form and 80-90% pure.

It doesn't matter where you live, how you have parented, what your income is.......it knows no boundaries and it's out there. Young people and communities need to be educated on prescription drug use as well as the gateway drugs that can lead them to it. Countless lives have been lost.

We are out there warning young people and their parents because this is a community crisis, not just a family's crisis. As many of us say "By the grace God go I". This website was formed to support families and educate them on addiction and well as resources and a "place" to go when feeling desperate or alone and we are here 24/7. Our mission is to support with kindness, care, compassion and empathy. You are not alone.

read more at http://www.learn2cope.org/

Joanne Peterson

Magnesium and the Nervous System

2010-03-17T01:23:00.000-07:00

According to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, studies show that as many as two thirds of all Americans do not consume enough magnesium. The latest government study shows a staggering 68% of Americans do not consume the recommended daily intake of magnesium, which is set way too low meaning these statistics are understatements. Even more frightening are data from this study showing that 19% of Americans do not consume even half of the government’s recommended daily intake of magnesium.

Even a mild deficiency of magnesium can cause increased sensitivity to noise, nervousness, irritability, mental depression, confusion, twitching, trembling, apprehension, and insomnia. Imagine being able to clear these symptoms without dangerous drugs! Magnesium is the premier medicine for depression, sleep disturbances, emotionally disturbed behavior, and neurological diseases because of its strong positive effect in calming and nourishing the nervous system.

***

Magnesium deficiency or imbalance plays a crucial role in the symptoms of mood disorders. Observational and experimental studies have shown an association between magnesium and aggression, [6],[7],[8],[9],[10], anxiety, [11],[12],[13], ADHD, [14],[15],[16],[17], bipolar disorder, [18],[19], depression [20],[21],[22],[23] and schizophrenia [24],[25],[26],[27]. The two most basic requirements for the normal operation of our brain are a sufficient energy supply and an optimal presence of biochemicals involved in transmitting messages. Magnesium is crucial in both the production of energy and neurotransmitters, and the integrity of the blood brain barrier. Solid neuroscience connects magnesium to neurological disorders. [28]

***

The healthy cell is permeable. This means that nutrients are able to pass into them efficiently to be absorbed and the toxic byproducts of metabolism are eliminated. When the cells are healthy the polarity of the cell is correct, i.e., there is intracellular potassium and magnesium as well as extracellular sodium and calcium. The cell in this state is healthy, and the person functions optimally both physically and emotionally. The unhealthy cell is not permeable. This leads to unhealthy cells with sodium and calcium going inside the cell, and magnesium and potassium being lost.

Read More:

http://magnesiumforlife.com/medical-application/magnesium-in-neurological-diseases-and-emotions/

The biggest benefit of topical/transdermal magnesium
chloride administration is that the intestines are not
adversely impacted by large doses of oral magnesium.

According to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, studies show that as many as two thirds of all Americans do not consume enough magnesium. The latest government study shows a staggering 68% of Americans do not consume the recommended daily intake of magnesium, which is set way too low meaning these statistics are understatements. Even more frightening are data from this study showing that 19% of Americans do not consume even half of the government’s recommended daily intake of magnesium.

Ending an American Tragedy

2010-03-12T22:26:00.001-08:00

The first report, Ending An American Tragedy: Addressing the Needs of Justice-Involved People with Mental Illnesses and Co-Occurring Disorders, provides 4 recommendations for immediate action. These recommendations include:

The President should appoint a Special Advisor for Mental Health/Criminal Justice Collaboration;
Federal Medicaid policies that limit or discourage access to more effective and cost-efficient health care services for individuals with serious mental illnesses and co-occurring substance use disorders should be reviewed and action taken to create more efficient programs;
All States should create cross-system agencies, commissions, or positions charged with removing barriers and creating incentives for cross-agency activity at the State and local level; and
Localities must develop and implement core services that comprise an Essential System of Care;
Each year the report will be updated to provide details on the state of the field and make further recommendations for action. The NLF will meet once a year to track the progress of the recommendations made from previous years and suggest areas for improvement. Click the following link to download a copy of Ending An American Tragedy. http://www.gainscenter.com//html/nlf/pdfs/AmericanTragedy.pdf

A Collaboration between Corrections and Public Health

2010-03-12T22:23:00.000-08:00

In Montana the State Department of Corrections and Department of Public Health and Human Services jointly fund a boundary spanner position that facilitates shared planning, communication, resources, and treatment methods between the mental health and criminal justice systems.

Changes Needed in Criminal Justice and Mental Health Policy and Practice

2010-03-12T22:13:00.000-08:00

2010 CMHS Nationa GAINS Center Conference
March 17-19, 2010
Orlando, FL

The National Leadership Forum on Behavioral Health/Criminal Justice Services (NLF) was established in 2008 to address common barriers to successful diversion and reentry – the lack of accessible, quality and appropriate services that help individuals remain and succeed in the community. Forum members represent leading experts in the fields of criminal justice, consumer advocacy, and mental health. These individuals are consumers, directors and CEOs of national consumer organizations, judges and public defenders, mental health practitioners, state mental health agency representatives, state department of corrections directors, and other national leaders in the field. Meetings are used to review the condition of the criminal justice and mental health systems, draft methods for improving key areas of these two systems, organize materials and documents created by the NLF for dissemination, and review the impact these documents have on fostering change in criminal justice/mental health policy and practice at the federal, state, and community levels.

The goal of the NLF is to go beyond previous efforts to address diversion and reentry for persons with mental illness that become justice involved. To do this, the NLF is developing an annual report that will identify several methods on how to improve current practices in these two systems and will make clear that:

The increase number of persons with mental illness in the justice system is a public health and a public safety crisis that demands urgent attention;
We know how to successfully address the needs of people with mental and substance use disorders who come in contact with the criminal justice system;
The information that is already available needs to be put into practice; and
The time for action is now!
The first report, Ending An American Tragedy: Addressing the Needs of Justice-Involved People with Mental Illnesses and Co-Occurring Disorders, provides 4 recommendations for immediate action. These recommendations include:

The President should appoint a Special Advisor for Mental Health/Criminal Justice Collaboration;
Federal Medicaid policies that limit or discourage access to more effective and cost-efficient health care services for individuals with serious mental illnesses and co-occurring substance use disorders should be reviewed and action taken to create more efficient programs;
All States should create cross-system agencies, commissions, or positions charged with removing barriers and creating incentives for cross-agency activity at the State and local level; and
Localities must develop and implement core services that comprise an Essential System of Care;
Each year the report will be updated to provide details on the state of the field and make further recommendations for action. The NLF will meet once a year to track the progress of the recommendations made from previous years and suggest areas for improvement. Click the following link to download a copy of Ending An American Tragedy. http://www.gainscenter.com//html/nlf/pdfs/AmericanTragedy.pdf

***

Schizophrenic: Who will care?

2010-03-10T09:54:00.000-08:00

An LA Times Opinion piece by Marcia Meier.

excert:

...They kept him three weeks, diagnosed him with schizophrenia and put him on medication. Then they released him, with medicine to take and an appointment to see a county psychiatrist. He finished the pills they sent him home with, but he refused to see the doctor and never returned to the county mental health department.

That was more than 20 years ago. My brother remains resistant to treatment, fearful, broke. But he's luckier than many with this devastating illness. Many people with schizophrenia live on the streets; he lives in a mobile home my mother bought for him after my dad died...

read more:

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-meier28-2010feb28,0,7835691.story

Targeting Blacks

2010-03-10T01:59:00.000-08:00

Targeting Blacks: Drug Law Enforcement and Race in the United States

In this new Human Rights Watch report, detailed new statistics show persistent racial disparities among drug offenders sent to prison in 34 states. All of these states send black drug offenders to prison at much higher rates than whites.

Key findings include:

Across the 34 states, a black man is 11.8 times more likely than a white man to be sent to prison on drug charges, and a black woman is 4.8 times more likely than a white woman.

In 16 states, African Americans are sent to prison for drug offenses at rates between 10 and 42 times greater than the rate for whites. The 10 states with the greatest racial disparities in prison admissions for drug offenders are: Wisconsin, Illinois, New Jersey, Maryland, West Virginia, Colorado, New York, Virginia, Pennsylvania, and Michigan.
http://hrw.org/reports/2008/us0508/

Publication Year: 2008

New CASA Report: Only 2% Spent on Prevention, Treatment

2010-03-10T01:54:00.000-08:00

New CASA Report Finds Federal, State and Local Governments Spend Almost Half a Trillion Dollars a Year on Substance Abuse and Addiction
May 28, 2009
Share Email Print Subscribe Announcement

From:
The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse (CASA) at Columbia University
633 Third Avenue, 19th Floor
New York, NY 10017-6706
Of Every Federal and State Dollar spent, 96 Cents Goes to Shovel Up Wreckage of Illness, Crime, Social Ills; Only 2 Cents Goes to Prevention and Treatment

Washington, D.C. -- Substance abuse and addiction cost federal, state and local governments at least $467.7 billion in 2005, according to Shoveling Up II: The Impact of Substance Abuse on Federal, State and Local Budgets, a new 287-page report released today by The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse (CASA*) at Columbia University.

The CASA report found that of $373.9 billion in federal and state spending, 95.6 percent ($357.4 billion) went to shovel up the consequences and human wreckage of substance abuse and addiction; only 1.9 percent went to prevention and treatment, 0.4 percent to research, 1.4 percent to taxation and regulation, and 0.7 percent to interdiction.

The report, based on three years of research and analysis, is the first ever to assess the costs of tobacco, alcohol and illegal and prescription drug abuse to all levels of government. Using the most conservative assumptions, the study concluded that the federal government spent $238.2 billion; states, $135.8 billion; and local governments, $93.8 billion, in 2005 (the most recent year for which data were available over the course of the study).

"Under any circumstances, spending more than 95 percent of taxpayer dollars on the crime, health care costs, child abuse, domestic violence, homelessness and other consequences of tobacco, alcohol and illegal and prescription drug abuse and addiction, and only two percent to relieve individuals and taxpayers of these burdens, is a reckless misallocation of public funds. In these economic times, such upside-down-cake public policy is unconscionable," said Joseph A. Califano, Jr., CASA's Founder and Chair and former U.S. Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare. "It's past time for this fiscal and human waste to end."

The report found that the largest amount of federal and state government spending on the burden of substance abuse and addiction -- $207.2 billion, or 58 percent -- was for health care (74.1 percent of the federal burden). The second largest amount -- $47 billion, or 13.1 percent -- was spent on justice systems, including incarceration, probation, parole, criminal, juvenile and family courts (32.5 percent of the state burden).

"With health care costs by far the heaviest burden of shoveling up, to attempt health care reform without providing for prevention and treatment of this disease is like trying to make a Reuben sandwich without corned beef and sauerkraut."

$1.1 Million in Grants Available for Drug Prevention Coalitions

2010-03-10T01:38:00.000-08:00

More than $1.1 Million in Grants Available for Community-Based Drug Prevention Coalitions

DFC Mentoring Grants to Fund 15 Drug-Free Community Programs Across the Nation in 2010

The White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP), in partnership with the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), is announcing the availability of more than $1.1 million for new Drug Free Communities Support Mentoring program (DFC Mentoring) grants. An estimated 15 new Mentoring grants will be awarded (up to $75,000 per grant, per year) to drug and alcohol prevention community coalitions from across the nation. The length of the project period is up to two years.

***

The primary focus of the DFC Mentoring program is to provide grant funds to existing DFC grantees, so they may serve as mentors to newly formed and/or developing coalitions that have never received a DFC grant to increase their capacity to implement effective drug-prevention strategies in the communities they serve.
"The Drug Free Communities Support program is the foundation for our Nation's efforts to prevent and reduce substance abuse," said SAMHSA Administrator Pamela S. Hyde, J.D. "One of the novel things about the Mentoring Program is that it helps new community coalitions learn about effective prevention strategies from the experiences of more established coalitions."

To be eligible for a DFC Mentoring grant, a coalition must have been in existence for five years; be a current DFC grantee or grantee applicant; have achieved measurable results in youth drug and alcohol prevention; and have dedicated staff, volunteers, or members to assist the mentee coalition(s). Prevention-ready communities seeking to be mentored under a DFC Mentoring grant must demonstrate the ability to garner community support from local key sectors and stakeholders, including youth, parents, businesses, media, law enforcement, government, and religious and civic organizations.

DFC Mentoring grants are awarded through a competitive peer review process. The deadline to submit a DFC Mentoring grant application is Friday, April 23, 2010.

To learn more about the Drug Free Communities support program, grant application, or its requirements, please visit: www.whitehousedrugpolicy.gov/dfc

###

Useful Numbers in a Crisis

2010-03-10T01:29:00.000-08:00

Ventura County Mental Health Crisis Team 652-6727

Santa Barbara County Mobile Crisis Team 888-868-1649

Did You Know?

2010-03-08T00:58:00.001-08:00

Did you know that this 16 bed facility needs to serve geriatric patients with dementia, young adults having their first break as well as jail inmates who are experiencing psychosis? That when the locked geriatric ward at St Francis Hospital was closed, Cottage Hospital promised to create one but has not?

Did You Know?

2010-03-08T00:57:00.002-08:00

Did you know that we have only 16 psychiatric beds in Santa Barbara? For a county of 42,000 people?

Did You Know?

2010-03-08T00:57:00.001-08:00

Did you know that Santa Barbara residents are being sent to state prison for a mental health evaluation?

David Bearman: Strong Families Our Best Defense Against Drug Abuse

2010-03-02T22:31:00.000-08:00

Local Santa Barbara Marijuana Doctor, David Bearman weighs in on Federal Drug Laws and local Marijuana Dispensaries in a recent Noozhawk story.
http://www.noozhawk.com/noozhawk/print/030110_david_bearman_strong_families_our_best_defense_against_drug_abuse/

Former Mexican President Visits Santa Barbara

2010-02-20T00:02:00.000-08:00

Former Mexican President, Vincente Fox told a Westmont audience on 2/20/10 that "It's time to debate legalizing drugs".

Vincente Fox:

2010-02-20T00:01:00.001-08:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BWr93mYKfIk

Fish Oil May Reduce Risk of Psychotic Disorder

2010-02-19T23:51:00.000-08:00

G. Paul Amminger, M.D., of the Medical University of Vienna, Austria, and Orygen Youth Health Research Center in Melbourne, Australia, headed a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial to test whether omega-3s could influence the risk of progression to psychosis in 81 individuals considered to be at extremely high risk for the disorder. The research subjects had displayed a decrease in their ability to function and they also had already developed mild psychotic symptoms, transient psychotic episodes and/or they had a family history of psychotic disorders. Those criteria, the researchers stated in their study, are used to identify individuals whose risk of becoming psychotic may be as high as 40 percent over the course of a year.

For about three months, 41 of the research subjects were given daily fish oil capsules containing 1.2 grams of omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids. The other 40 participants were given a placebo. When the study ended, about 94 percent of the subjects were still in the study and two taking the omega-3s, or only 4.9 percent, had developed a psychotic disorder. On the other hand, 11 in the placebo group (27.5 percent) had become psychotic. The difference between the two groups was extraordinary -- 22.6 percent.

What's more, supplementation with the fatty acids significantly reduced mental illness symptoms and improved overall functioning, too. Not surprisingly, there were virtually no side effects associated with the fish oil pills.

"The finding that treatment with a natural substance may prevent or at least delay the onset of psychotic disorder gives hope that there may be alternatives to antipsychotics for the prodromal (early symptomatic) phase. Stigmatization and adverse effects -- which include metabolic changes, sexual dysfunction and weight gain -- associated with the use of antipsychotics are often not acceptable for young people," the scientists wrote in their study. "Long-chain omega-3 fatty polyunsaturated fatty acids reduce the risk of progression to psychotic disorder and may offer a safe and efficacious strategy for indicated prevention in young people with subthreshold psychotic states."

For more information:
http://archpsyc.ama-assn.org/cgi/co...
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/...

Crazy Art

2010-02-17T23:16:00.000-08:00

Great news...Crazy Art...placed in the top 5 in the Audience Choice
category out of the 200 films in the Santa Barbara Film Festival.

So...it now is going to be shown - for free! - with other award-winning
films this coming weekend at the Riviera Theatre.

Entrance to these films is FREE! Showtime for Crazy Art is 9pm, Friday, Feb. 19th.
Theater seats available on a first come, first served basis!

http://sbiff.org/main/2010/3rd-weekend-schedule-2/

The film's Facebook page:
http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/pages/Crazy-Art/344271156205?ref=ts

Many Children Self-Medicate

2010-02-14T00:31:00.001-08:00

“There’s ample evidence that many children use drugs to self-medicate for depression, not to mention a host of mental-health disorders. The drugs they take may become the focal point for both kids and their parents, but they may be masking deeper problems. How can a parent know? Many symptoms of these disorders appear to be identical to some of the symptoms of drug abuse. Also, by the time experts finally figure out there’s a problem, drug addiction may have exacerbated the underlying ailment and fused with it. It becomes impossible to know where one leaves off and the other begins.” --David Sheff, Beautiful Boy

Overdose Statistics

2010-02-13T00:55:00.001-08:00

In 2006, more than 26,000 American lives were lost to the preventable tragedy of accidental drug overdose. This is the highest number of overdose deaths ever recorded, more than doubling in just the past five years. This crisis now claims more lives each year than firearms, homicides or AIDS. Accidental drug overdose is now the number one cause of injury related death in the United States for people between the ages of 35-54, as well as a leading cause of death for people of all ages. Prescription opioid painkillers like Vicodin, Oxycontin and methadone are driving the growing numbers of deaths every year. DPA is leading the national effort to help save lives by promoting sensible solutions and better policy at the state and federal level.

One Mother's Testimony: 2/2/10

2010-02-13T00:25:00.000-08:00

I am here at the Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors representing scores of Santa Barbara families dealing with mental health and substance use disorders who are or will loose their loved ones to suicide, overdose and homelessness. Shame, grief and despair has hidden the extent of the many of these tragedies from our community. Now that the homeless are dying in plain sight we can no longer ignore them.

How many deaths is it going to take before we provide a welcoming shelter to people without homes in our community AND address the roots causes of homelessness, including untreated trauma, mental illness and substance use?

We are beginning to work with the Coroner's department to document the unprecedented number of suicides, overdose and homeless deaths in our community over the last year. These problems overlap.

There are big gaping holes in our so called "system of care" at every step of the way from the first break to the 15th break. The few slots provided by the alcohol drug and mental health department are filled.

We must prevent people from falling into homeless and falling into despair by coming together as a community and providing more than band-aid solutions.

The truth is that someone with a mental illness or a substance use problem needs more than a jail sentence, and more than a meaningless check in at an outpatient center, and more than a couple of weeks in a detox bed, and more than a bunk in a crowded room filled with other untreated people. These are band-aid solutions at best.

We need hospital beds and residential treatment facilities with professionally trained staff: A context where there’s enough safety that healthy relationships can thrive and recovery can happen.

Our Task Force on Co-Occurring Disorders is a beginning. It was started by moms and dads who have watched their children spiral downwards into hopelessness. It has brought together treatment providers, criminal justice, and family members to attempt to come up with a solution. Craig Park from Cottage Hospital has recently joined our ranks and hopeful that Cottage Hospital will play a leading role in addressing this complex crisis.

It's time that the private sector and the public sector, the faith community and individual citizens come together to think out-of-the-box.

Supes to Address Homeless Death, Shelters

2010-02-02T01:50:00.000-08:00

By COLBY FRAZIER — Feb. 2, 2010

In the wake of frigid temperatures and heavy rain that likely contributed to the deaths of three homeless people, the Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors today will weigh whether to fund, and possibly staff, temporary warming centers during extreme weather events.

Read more at: http://www.thedailysound.com/020210Homeless

Tribute to John Van Aken

2010-02-01T23:41:00.000-08:00

VAN AKEN, John T. was a tireless advocate for the mentally ill in Santa Barbara, and particularly for those going through the criminal justice system. John was a panelist at the FACT Town Hall Meeting held at the Faulkner Gallery in spring of 2007. Thank you, John for all that you did to help Santa Barbara County residents dealing with mental illness and co-occuring disorders!

John died peacefully on January 9th, 2010. He was born on April 9th, 1922 in Elkhart , Indiana and grew up in Coldwater, Michigan. He attended the University of Michigan for both undergraduate studies and a law degree. His studies were interrupted when he enlisted as a Lieutenant Junior Grade in the navy during World War II, assigned to a light cruiser in the Pacific. After acquiring his law degree, he practiced in Chicago as a partner at Seyfarth Shaw. His specialty was labor relations for management. In 1978 he transferred to New York to open a Seyfarth Shaw office in Manhattan. Upon retiring he moved to Santa Barbara and devoted his energies to advocacy for the mentally ill, serving as president of the Mental Health Association of Santa Barbara for two years, and as chairman of the Public Policy Committee. John is survived by his wife, Doris, their sons; James and John R. with his wife Kathryn, and his twin brother, Mark with his wife Dolores. A memorial service will be held at the Valle Verde Retirement Community on January 23rd from 2:00 to 4:00pm. In lieu of flowers, contributions may be sent to the University of Michigan or the Mental Health Association of Santa Barbara. Arrangements by Welch-Ryce-Haider Funeral Chapels.

HEAVEN. HELL. HEROIN. Lessons learned from one young man's death

2010-01-29T14:01:00.000-08:00

Mother and son spoke little that night as they drifted from the teenager in the coffin toward her family in the corner......

Roger Pacheco arrived at his son’s Billerica apartment early Saturday night, where he met local police. Stephen’s mother had called them.

Stephen hadn’t been heard from since Thursday, hadn’t responded to two-dozen messages — and hated being alone.

Still, no one talked of a relapse — Stephen had been too strong. Too happy. Too focused on the future.

The door of the third-floor apartment was cracked, so his father entered first, calling his son.

Signs of life abounded. A lunch had been packed. Lights were on. The television. And the air conditioner — set so high it had chilled the room.

But atop the kitchen table sat the mark of death — baggies speckled with a brown granular substance.

Heroin.

Water ran in the bathroom.

On the floor near the sink, Stephen Pacheco lay dead.

His father fell to his knees, but knew from the first touch.

His son was gone.

71 Inmates Released Early from Santa Barbara County Jail

2010-01-28T15:00:00.000-08:00

22 inmates were released from the jail and another 49 in the jail’s Alternative Sentencing Program were taken off of electronic monitoring and the Sheriff’s Work Alternative Program (SWAP). Sugars indicated that by the end of this month, the County Jail will release a total of 128 inmates (50 from the jail and 78 from Alternative Sentencing). Before yesterday’s release, there were a total of 980 inmates in the jail system and an additional 200 inmates enrolled in the Alternative Sentencing program.

2 Recent Deaths Maybe Related to Methadone Overdose

2010-01-26T07:47:00.000-08:00

In response to 5 recent deaths on the streets of Santa Barbara, homeless advocates held a press conference Monday night, 1/25/10 in the home of Chuck Blitz, who funds local efforts to help the homeless. The advocates want the county to help fund an emergency warming shelter.

As details of the deaths emerge, it appears that illegally obtained Methadone may have been involved in 2 of last weeks deaths.

Families ACT has been calling for closer collaboration between law enforcement, criminal justice and treatment providers and the creation of a residential treatment center to address the needs of county residents with co-occurring mental health and substance use disorders.

Families ACT initiated the creation of the Task Force on Co-Occurring Disorders to bring the various agencies, providers family members and clients to the table to find solutions to this complex challenge. We welcome the participation of concerned members of our community who can help create and fund a residential treatment facility with detox beds.

Call 637-1339 if you can help.

Unitarians Open Their Doors to the Homeless During the Storm

2010-01-25T22:01:00.000-08:00

Considering the hard rains, pelting winds, and plunging nighttime temperatures, two South Coast churches opened their doors to the homeless as short-term temporary shelters. That’s in part because Santa Barbara’s the main shelter, Casa Esperanza, had maxed out at 200 people four nights in a row; according to its conditional use permits, Casa cannot legally accept more than 200 guests.

In response, the Unitarian Church in downtown Santa Barbara opened its “warming shelter” Sunday night, accepting 25 overnight visitors. Because of space limitations, some were turned away. Monday night, another 25 stayed, but none were turned away. Some slept outside under the eaves. One had walked shoeless—wearing only socks—from the County Jail, where he’d been released earlier that night.

Paul Wellman
Dr. Lynn Jahnke and John Buttney outside the warming center at the Unitarian Church Monday night Jan. 18, 2010
The rains pose a special challenge. Since a homeless man, Freedom, froze to death in December, many serving the homeless—both in and out of government—have been acutely concerned that no one else suffers the same fate. But many homeless people want nothing to do with the confinement and rules imposed by any shelter. Some of the people showing up at the Unitarian Church typically stay out of any shelter unless forced to by the extremity of weather conditions. The University Religious Center in Isla Vista has also opened its doors to the homeless during the rains.

Within the homeless service community, there’s considerable discussion about who and what government entity should be providing this short-term emergency care. According to some activists, volunteers, and medical care providers, the County of Santa Barbara is legally responsible for providing emergency shelter. But thus far, the county has been content to let others make the necessary arrangements of finding shelter and securing volunteer nighttime staff. Part of the issue stems from the fuzziness of a “protocol” hammered out three years ago. Under the terms of this arrangement, the county would intervene only when all existing shelters exceeded their capacity.

But that hasn’t happened yet. While the Casa is full, the Santa Barbara Rescue Mission has yet to fill all its 134 shelter beds—110 for men, 24 for women. There is a belief among some in the homeless community that the Rescue Mission requires guests to subject themselves to religious indoctrination in exchange for shelter. Nothing could be further from the truth, stated Rolf Geyling of the Rescue Mission. “To me it’s unconscionable that some would extract a religious confession from some of the homeless at a time of acute need,” he said. “We do not do that here.” Geyling said the Rescue Mission did have rules, but that religious participation in chapel services was strictly optional. “We offer it,” he said, “but no one is required to attend.” Geyling added that the Rescue Mission could squeeze more than 134 guests in, if need be; the Rescue Mission chapel could provide a warming shelter for about 30 people.

Cluster of Homeless Deaths

2010-01-24T17:31:00.000-08:00

Just three weeks into 2010, five homeless deaths have already been reported. The grim new year’s toll comes on the heels of 28 deaths among Santa Barbara’s homeless in 2009.

“It’s just unheard of,” social worker Ken Williams told Noozhawk on Sunday morning.

Williams said Sunday that another body had been found Saturday night. The homeless man was discovered under the same bridge where another homeless man, Mike, had died just hours earlier Saturday.

Williams reported the year’s first homeless death on Jan. 13. A man named Greg had collapsed and died on Stearns Wharf that day, he said.

While talking with Noozhawk on Sunday, Williams was in the middle of e-mailing an appeal to public health officials to declare an emergency and open up warming centers for the homeless. A series of powerful Pacific storms has been pounding the South Coast with rain, wind and frigid temperatures.

“We need to request, beg and demand that Public Health, or the city or county — hopefully, all three — declare a state of emergency,” the e-mail said. “Warming centers need to be professionally staffed and funded by the city and county.”

A homeless Vietnam veteran was reported to have died in Isla Vista last week and Williams also confirmed the death of a woman named Christin, two blocks from Pershing Park.

“There had been reported assaults against women in that park,” said Williams, who acknowledged he didn’t know Christin’s official cause of death.

Williams said he’s walked up and down State Street several times since the beginning of the year, and noticed a larger number of homeless than usual.

“I’ve never seen so many people outside the shelters,” said Williams, adding that many seemed to be suffering from mental illness.

The Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors will be listening to a presentation Tuesday about the Alcohol, Drug and Mental Health Services Department, one of the agencies charged with addressing the mental health needs of the homeless.

ADMHS recently received a grade of “F” in an independent study conducted by the California External Quality Review Organization, which ranked mental health departments statewide.

The department reduced spending in 2009 by $8.4 million.

Michael Foley, executive director of the Casa Esperanza homeless shelter, 816 Cacique St., also implored city and county officials to address the needs of the homeless.

“At the Casa Esperanza homeless center this December, 43 homeless people came to the shelter for the first time and declared the need for help dealing with mental illness, compared to 27 the year before,” Foley said in an e-mail to county supervisors Friday. “The rate of suicide and suicidal ideation is on the rise. Millions of dollars are owed to the state of California due to bad billing.”

The supervisors will meet at 9 a.m. Tuesday in Santa Maria at the Betteravia Government Center Board Hearing Room, 511 E. Lakeside Parkway.

— Noozhawk staff writer Lara Cooper can be reached at lcooper@noozhawk.com.

OxyContin and the Opium Epidemic of the 21st Century

2010-01-14T23:28:00.000-08:00

A Twenty First Century Drug Addiction
January 12, 2010 in DRUGS & ADDICTION, DRUGS & EDUCATION, TREATMENT | see www. DadOnFire.net for full story
OxyContin and the Opium Epidemic of the 21st Century. Larry G. of Prescription Addiction Radio wrote this piece early in 2009 to bring attention to the epidemic sweeping America; quite frequently culminating in street heroin addiction. Its not about responsible use of pain medication. Its about kids dying. A dozen young people died just in the NW part of Tucson this year! Evan Cueto was the 3rd overdose death at Canada Del Oro High School in just 3 months into 2009. Many Blessings to his family. This is an epidemic. If it were a terrorist incident, it would be all over the news. The death toll of opiate overdose barely gets print. Why is America silent? The carnage won’t end without communities demanding it stop. Opiate Addiction is a serious illness and is treatable if addicts want it and have an accessible support network behind them. Current estimates of opiate addiction in America is roughly 2 million and growing. 100,000 may die. The writing is on the wall. Parents can start by educating themselves. Time to Act.

Opportunities to Help

2010-01-03T01:29:00.000-08:00

Opportunities to help Santa Barbarans in tremendous need abound:

1. Become a mentor to a young adult stuggling with co-occurring disorders.

2. Help staff a shift at the Freedom Warming Centers that are being set up on an ad hoc basis at various participating churches and centers( including Trinity Episcopal Church and the Unitarian Society) to provide a warm place for a few homeless men and women to sleep. This program was created by Dr. Lynne Jahnke and fellow homeless advocates after a man named Freedom died in his wheelchair in December, 2009 , of exposure to the cold on the Santa Barbara pier.

3. Help fund Families ACT's new Video Documentation Project - based on interviews with Santa Barbara's young dually diagnosed men and women who are at risk for suicide, overdose, incarceration and homelessness and struggling to find recovery and a reason to live. They are empowered by telling their story and we benefit by witnessing their journey. Exactly what will it take to bring about much-needed changes in our local, state and national policies so that we can offer them a healing hand rather than a criminal record?

Call (805) 637-1339 to volunteer or make a donation.

Families ACT Receives Grant

2009-12-22T08:52:00.000-08:00

Families ACT has received a $10,000 grant from the Promoting Policy Change Program of Drug Policy Alliance to network with other organizations statewide to raise awareness about the impact of our policies on people with mental health disorders.

Affordable Counseling Now Available at Santa Barbara Neighborhood Clinics

2009-12-22T08:45:00.000-08:00

Thanks to a grant from Mary Jane Brighton, Santa Barbara's Neighborhood Clinics will now be able to offer counseling regardless of a patient's ability to pay, using counseling interns from Antioch University and the Alcohol and Drug Counseling department at Santa Barbara City College. Counseling will be available at Isla Vista, West Side and Eastside clinics as well as the Eastside Dental Clinic.

“We’re here to help,” said Vickie Gonzalez, a licensed family therapist and director of the clinics’ mental health services.

Free Therapeutic Body Work Sessions Donated to F-ACT Members

2009-09-20T18:26:00.001-07:00

Santa Barbara's Body Therapy Institute offers free student massage, Shiatsu and Trigger Point sessions to Families ACT members!

Call Katie at 966-5802 for details.

McCune Foundation and Fund for SB fund Families ACT 2009 inititiaves

2009-07-10T13:12:00.000-07:00

Good News!

Families ACT has been awarded grants from McCune Foundation and Santa Barbara Foundation to support the Task Force on Co-Occurring Disorders and our Public Education Campaign.

We are now seeking matching funds from the community. One of the objectives of this campaign is to support dually diagnosed consumers to speak publicly about their experiences. If you have personal experience with dual diagnosis and would like to tell your story as part of our outreach to the community please contact Families ACT at 805-637-1339 (stipends available).

US Senate Hearing: Overhauling Justice System

2009-06-15T09:57:00.000-07:00

On Thursday, June 11th, the Senate Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on Crime and Drugs held a hearing on Senator Jim Webb's proposed legislation to overhaul America's criminal justice system.

A link to the video of this hearing can be found on Senator Webb's website:

http://webb.senate.gov/email/criminaljusticereform.html

Families ACT! Launches 2009-11 Initiative

2009-05-20T19:40:00.000-07:00

Families ACT! has launched a two- part initiative for 2009-11.

We will be embarking on an comprehensive Community Education Campaign to document the crisis we face, to represent the needs of our dually diagnosed population and to explore collaborative community solutions to the lack treatment options. We are meeting with County and City officials and scheduling presentations at civic, educational and faith-based groups to show our video and elicit community support for a residential treatment/detox center.

As part and parcel of this initiative, The Task Force on Co-Occurring Disorders, which Families ACT convened in the summer of 2008, will be charged with gathering data on the numbers of Santa Barbara County's residents dealing with mood/thought disorder and co-occurring substance use to document the need for a continuum of care and residential treatment/detox facilities for this population.

Senator Jim Webb: Our Champion in Washington D.C.!

2009-04-01T00:45:00.000-07:00

Senator Webb gave a speech on the US Senate floor on March 26, 2009, proposing new legislation to reform the nation's criminal justice system:

http://webb.senate.gov/email/incardocs/FS_CrimJust_3-26-09.pdf

Here are the key Slides/Statistics he used which document the shocking increase in the numbers of Americans incarcerated in recent decades and the percentage of these who are incarcerated for drug offenses and mental illness:

http://webb.senate.gov/email/incardocs/SlidesCriminalJusticeBill.pdf

Here is an audio link to his NPR (National Public Radio) Interview from Sunday March 29, 2009:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=102486450

Cover story by Webb in Parade Magazine (3/29/09):

http://www.parade.com/news/2009/03/why-we-must-fix-our-prisons.html?index=2

ARC in Carpinteria to close

2009-03-21T00:43:00.000-07:00

The ARC in Carpinteria with almost 90 beds for men in recovery is scheduled to close around the end of April.

This is a tragedy!

The Salvation Army is asking several million dollars for the building.

Various groups/agencies in our community are trying to figure out how to salvage this facility.

Can anyone help??

Task Force on Co-Occurring Disorders

2009-03-21T00:30:00.000-07:00

The Santa Barbara Task Force on Co-Occurring Disorders will be meeting April 10th at noon.

We will be exploring strategies for getting residential treatment and detox facilities for Santa Barbarans with mental health and co-occurring subtance use disorders in these financially strained times.

The people who run Nueva Vista, a model "therapeutic community" for up to 61 people with mental illness near San Jose, will be at the meeting, to tell us about their program.

Nancy Gottlieb, Interim Division Chief of Alcohol and Drug Programs at ADMHS, and Dr. Edwin Feliciano, Medical Director for ADMHS are planning to attend.

Several representatives from the Sheriff's Department will be attending.

Cut-backs at ADMHS

2008-03-08T12:26:00.000-08:00

Dear Friends,

This week brought heart-breaking news. ADMHS is
proposing massive cuts that are bound to flood our
streets with even more untreated, mentally ill people.
Please visit noozhawk.com, a local Internet news
service for an article on this topic.

Also, as a reminder, Shattered Dreams, A Story of the
Streets, is available at Borders, Chaucer’s and The
Book Den, as well as on Amazon.com and iUniverse.com.
Ironically, one of the main characters in the novel is
a mentally ill, homeless woman existing on the streets
in a community much like our own. The mentally ill
homeless look to us as allies in their struggle for
existence. We must do whatever we can.

Thank you,

Sincerely,

Ken