Brian Burgess, president of the Victorian Association of State Secondary Principals, said the two-part documentary Such Is Life: The Troubled Times of Ben Cousins could [...]]]> Teenagers planning to watch this week’s documentary about footballer Ben Cousins’ battle with drug addiction should make it a family affair, according to the peak body representing the state’s school principals.

Brian Burgess, president of the Victorian Association of State Secondary Principals, said the two-part documentary Such Is Life: The Troubled Times of Ben Cousins could provide young people with the opportunity to broach a difficult topic and discuss the consequences of drug-taking with a responsible adult.

Excerpts of the program, to air on Wednesday and Thursday nights, appeared on the internet earlier this month in the form of a Channel Seven promotional advertisement.

They showed Cousins dancing in his underwear, an emotional interview with the retiring Richmond footballer’s father Bryan, and Cousins looking into the camera and saying: “I’m a drug addict.”

Mr Burgess said he had not seen the documentary and was not encouraging people view it, but if a young person was going to watch it they should do so in the presence of a responsible adult.

“I think it’s important that it’s not just the young teenager in the bedroom watching on television,” he said.

“I think the family should watch it together so they can actually talk about it.

“A program like this is often a catalyst, it’s an opening, it gives you the opportunity to open up the conversation and to have a bit of a chat about it and to talk about things like peer pressure in these circumstances, to talk about trying to keep yourself healthy.”

The program has received the nod of approval from Richmond, the club Cousins will retire from at the end of this season.

However the Australian Drug Foundation has urged Channel Seven not to portray actual drug use and to avoid making Cousins’s behaviour appear “cool”, saying its research suggests that portrayal of drug use in the media “triggers” some people to experiment with drugs.

Another Melbourne-based drug and alcohol rehabilitation group, Turning Point, has welcomed the program, saying it was time for the community to talk publicly about drug use.

Mr Burgess said if the program was poorly done it could potentially glamorise the footballer’s troubled life.

“But I’m assuming it’s actually going to give a realistic picture of how drug-taking has affected Ben Cousins,” he said.

“From what I’ve read in the papers and from what I’ve seen of his life, it doesn’t seem to have done him all that much good. I’m hoping the program will present things in that way.”

He said it was possible the documentary could be used in schools to educate children about the dangers of drug abuse.

“Sometimes schools take bits and pieces of commercial programs because you know that it helps open up a conversation about some things that are important for kids to know about,” he said.

“It may well be used in that way but it would really depend very much on how it is presented.”

Via: theage.com.au

Of the more than 80.000 students surveyed, over 46% reported having drunk alcohol, and of that percentage, [...]]]> In a study done with middle school students, more precisely adolescents between 13 and 17 years old, the 60% had admitted having drunk alcohol. In men the percentage is higher than in women. 19.7% said that had smoked snuff.

Of the more than 80.000 students surveyed, over 46% reported having drunk alcohol, and of that percentage, 60% did it improperly.

Meanwhile, the percentage of students who smoked snuff fell from 21.9% in 2007 to 19.7 last year, while the age at onset of both addictions stood in 13 years old.

8.4% of adolescents confirmed ever having smoked marijuana, however, the use of other illicit drugs such as cocaine or stimulants decreased substantially.

The factors which adolescents attributed the cause of increased consumption of both alcohol and drugs were some such as the availability of money, low expectation for the future to develop or complete projects or even finish the secondary, tertiary or university studies. That leaves them to join the indiscriminate use of toxic substances for the human body.

Availability is not just of money, but also the proximity and easy access to drugs. 22.6% said they had received offers to buy these substances.

Drugs are easily available in any environment, which is not a less important fact, since it drives directly to enter the world of drug and alcohol indiscriminately.

Via: momento24.com

The toddler was spotted chewing on a piece of tinfoil which was thought to be tainted with both drugs.

On Sunday when the boy was seen chewing the foil he was at a West Side house, Officer Melvin Branch said.

After the child started acting lethargic, he [...]]]> A one-year-old boy was tested positive for cocaine, Chicago police said.

The toddler was spotted chewing on a piece of tinfoil which was thought to be tainted with both drugs.

On Sunday when the boy was seen chewing the foil he was at a West Side house, Officer Melvin Branch said.

After the child started acting lethargic, he was rushed to Mt. Sinai Hospital. The investigators went to the house and found drug paraphernalia after hospital officials called police.

The boys has however been listed in good condition.

When someone saw the boy chewing on the foil he was at a residence in the 3600 block of West 5th Avenue. Some sort of black substance was spotted on the kid’s teeth after he chewed the foil.

An incident of child abuse was reported at about 1:18 a.m. after the hospital called police.

Angel dust is the name given to PCP, or phencyclidine and the police believes that the black substance on the foil was the residue left over after someone smoked the substances.

Via: topnews.ae

Smoking among young people was 29% – the lowest figure since records began in 1982 when it was 53%.

The proportion who had ever taken drugs fell to 22% from 29% in 2001, the first year of [...]]]> A study from NHS Information Centre shows smoking, drinking and drug taking in young people aged 11-15 have all fallen.

Smoking among young people was 29% – the lowest figure since records began in 1982 when it was 53%.

The proportion who had ever taken drugs fell to 22% from 29% in 2001, the first year of measurement. The percentage who had drunk alcohol dropped to 51% in 2009, compared with 61% in 2003.

But the report also showed that all three habits become more frequent as children grow older. For instance, in 2009, only one-in-50 11 year olds had taken drugs in the last month, compared with nearly one in five 15 year olds.

Via: healthcarerepublic.com

Aberdeen Police Capt. John Green says investigators have found and questioned one of the two men who left her Monday at Grays Harbor Community Hospital. Green says there’s no evidence she’s the victim of a crime.

Green [...]]]> A 16-year-old girl who was dropped off at an Aberdeen hospital with a drug overdose is reported in critical condition.

Aberdeen Police Capt. John Green says investigators have found and questioned one of the two men who left her Monday at Grays Harbor Community Hospital. Green says there’s no evidence she’s the victim of a crime.

Green said Wednesday it’s a tragic case. The teen has been “all through the system” of state care. Green says the mother who lives in the Grayland area and the father who lives in Hoquiam have a history of contacts with police.

Green says the 16-year-old had been living with a boyfriend. They recently broke up and she stayed at a hotel with the two men who took her to the hospital.

Via: seattletimes.nwsource.com

University officials voted [...]]]> In the latest effort to break up the often cozy relationship between doctors and the medical industry, the University of Michigan Medical School has become the first to decide that it will no longer take any money from drug and device makers to pay for coursework doctors need to renew their medical licenses.

University officials voted to eliminate commercial financing, beginning in January, for post-graduate medical education, a practice that has come under increasing scrutiny from academics, medical associations, ethicists and lawmakers because of the potential to promote products over patient interests.

Dr. James O. Woolliscroft, dean of U-M’s medical school, said leading faculty members “wanted education to be free from bias, to be based on the best evidence and a balanced view of the topic under discussion.”

While the financing in question amounts to as much as $1 million a year at U-M, commercial payments for industry speakers and courses nationwide come to about $1 billion, nearly half the total expenditure for such courses.

Groups fight publicly

The debate over whether the medical profession should develop an industry-free model of post-graduate education is fraught. A conference at Georgetown University on Friday, called “Prescription for Conflict,” will highlight the arguments on both sides through presentations by federal health officials, professors from leading medical schools, hospital executives and a Senate investigator.

Already this year, the debate has led to public squabbles as physicians’ groups have squared off over proposals for new restrictions on industry involvement in the courses known as Continuing Medical Education.

The decision was met with howls of dissent this month from some doctors, including the director of the National Institutes of Health and the president of the American Heart Association, who said it would unfairly cut physicians off from scientific knowledge.

Some seek more restrictions

On the other side of the argument, a leading medical ethicist asserted that the prohibition did not go far enough. Dr. Bernard Lo, lead author of a 2008 Institute of Medicine report on conflicts of interest, said private doctors and academic physicians who are paid to speak for drug companies should be barred from presenting educational material at accredited conferences.

Private medical education companies, which receive money from drug makers to produce such courses, and some physicians who lead the courses, disagree that industry financing or speakers lead to bias. They say that company-financed programs provide a vital service, keeping doctors up to date on the latest and most effective treatments.

“We present what we think is the state-of-the-art of the management of the disease,” said Dr. Rafael Fonseca, deputy director of the Mayo Clinic Cancer Center in Scottsdale, Ariz., who gives 20 to 30 such courses a year. “The accusation that there is bias is not substantiated.”

Continuing medical education has become a big business in the United States, with more than 700 accredited providers. Total spending on such courses peaked at $2.5 billion in 2007, according to the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education, a nonprofit regulatory group.

Via: detnews.com

The proposal would allow parents to decide if children who signed up for an extra curricular activity or for parking privileges would be allowed to be [...]]]> Bernards school board may allow parents of Ridge High School students to place their child in a pool for random drug testing, according to a report from the Daily Record.

The proposal would allow parents to decide if children who signed up for an extra curricular activity or for parking privileges would be allowed to be tested, but at least one parent expressed concern that the voluntary program would eventually become mandatory if people participated. NJ.com community members are reacting to the news.

From box211:

” ‘One parent at the meeting expressed concern that the voluntary program would eventually become mandatory if people participated’

“Huh? What is the downside to this? There should be no problem unless the kids are using drugs, no? Do they want their kids to have the option to use drugs and still participate in school.”

NJ.com member upnatem had this to say:

“Schools shouldn’t be drug testing students, they should be educating them. In a time when schools can’t fund what’s needed for education, why in the heck are they spending money on drug testing? It’s a school, not a prison. Oh, I forgot. The companies that sell the test kits stand to make a lot of money. And the drug counselors, rehab programs, etc. all stand to make big money too.”

Via: nj.com

Grant Wynia was given a 120-day suspended sentence and ordered to perform community service every week until he leaves for college.

Wynia was charged in May for taking the painkiller hydrocodone illegally during the past school year. [...]]]> A Sioux Falls, S.D., high school golf standout has been given a suspended jail sentence for taking prescription pills illegally.

Grant Wynia was given a 120-day suspended sentence and ordered to perform community service every week until he leaves for college.

Wynia was charged in May for taking the painkiller hydrocodone illegally during the past school year. He and basketball standout Cody Larson had been suspended from the basketball team in February. Larson, who will play basketball for the University of Florida in the fall, received a similar sentence in May.

Wynia will golf at Southern Illinois University. Coach Derrick Brown says it’s a concern when any of his athletes are involved in a criminal case but that Wynia has been upfront about it. Wynia says he’s sorry for what he did and has learned from it.

Via: twincities.com

Shane K. McBrayer, 30, of Waterbury pleaded guilty to driving under the influence [...]]]> WHITE RIVER JUNCTION, Vt. — A former Vermont school bus driver who drove drunk when he took a bus full of high school hockey players to a game pleaded guilty yesterday in a deal that calls for up to 18 months in jail.

Shane K. McBrayer, 30, of Waterbury pleaded guilty to driving under the influence of alcohol and negligent operation of a motor vehicle, both misdemeanors, for having a .134 blood-alcohol content when he drove the Mount Mansfield Union High School boys’ hockey team on a 1 3/4-hour trip to Woodstock in January.

McBrayer, who made no comment about the plea in court, was taken away by sheriff’s deputies afterward. He will serve 30 days in jail and then will be eligible for transfer to Georgia, where he is on probation for a purse snatching, said Vermont prosecutor David Cahill.

McBrayer was originally charged with reckless endangerment and driving under the influence of alcohol.

Prosecutors later upgraded the drunken-driving charge to a felony, after learning about his previous drunk driving convictions, in North Carolina in 2002 and in Georgia in 2004.

But they dropped the felony count and offered a plea for the two misdemeanors, in part because of a records issue in Mecklenburg County, N.C., that probably would have led to litigation about whether the person convicted in that case was the same Shane McBrayer, Cahill said.

The drunken driving cases were part of a long criminal record that includes convictions for robbery, burglary, shoplifting, disorderly conduct, and underage possession of alcohol.

McBrayer omitted any mention of the drunken-driving conviction when he applied for a commercial driver’s license in Vermont.

Even if he had revealed it then, he probably would have received the license, since the state Department of Motor Vehicles withholds licensing in such cases only if a person is under suspension or has no driver’s license in the jurisdiction they move from, said the commissioner of motor vehicles, Robert Ide.

Still, he said that information would have been available to school districts or bus companies that were considering hiring him, Ide said.

“It would not be grounds for disqualification’’ for a commercial driver’s license, Ide said.

The Chittenden East Supervisory Union school district, which hired McBrayer in September, did so after requesting a records check from the FBI, said co-superintendent John Alberghini. But no drunken-driving cases showed up on that, he said.

McBrayer drove a daytime school bus route in Bolton and volunteered to drive for some of the district’s sports teams, Alberghini said.

In the Jan. 23 incident, McBrayer drew the attention of team officials because of erratic driving.

Via: boston.com