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If you know someone with a prescription drug addiction who needs help then you may want to research what drug treatment programs are available and applicable for the situation.

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Nationwide, one in every 20 black men over the age of 18 is in prison.  In five states, between one in 13 and on in 14 black men is in prison.  This compares to one in 180 white men.

Source: Human Rights Watch, Racial Disparities in the War on Drugs (Washington DC: Human Rights Watch 2000), from their website at http://hrw.org.

 

Today the 9th District Court of Appeals issued a great decision on the issue of substantial compliance.  Specifically, the issue involved giving the HGN test while the Defendant was seated in the car.  The Court found that this was not substantial compliance. (State v. Haneberg 5/29/2007, 2007-Ohio-2561, 9th District Court of Appeals).

"When compared to alcohol, cannabis is detected far less often in accident-involved drivers.  Drummer et al. (2003) cited several studies and found that alcohol was detected in 12.5% to 79% of drivers involved in accidents.  With regard to crash risk, a large study conducted by Borkenstein, Crowther, Shumate, Zeil and Zylman (1964) compared BAC in approximately 6,000 accident-involved drivers and 7,600 nonaccident controls.  They determined the crash risk for each BAC by comparing the number of accident-involved drivers with detected levels of alcohol at each BAC to the number of non-accident control drivers with the same BAC.  They found that crash risk increased sharply as BAC increased.  More specifically, at a BAC of 0.10, drivers approximately five times more likely to be involved in an accident. 

Similar crash risks results were obtained when data for culpable drivers were evaluated. Drummer (1995) found that drivers with detected levels of alcohol were 7.6 times more likely to be culpable.  Longo et al. (2000) showed that drivers who tested positive for alcohol were 8,0 times more culpable, and alcohol consumption in combination with cannabis use produced an odds ratio of 5.4.  Similar results were also noted by Swann (2000) and Drummer (2003)."

Source: Laberge, Jacon C. Nicholan J. Ward, "Research Note: Cannabis and Driving -- Research Needs and Issues for Transportation Policy, "Journal of Drug Issues, Dec. 2004, pp. 981.

Getting drunk off hand sanitizers

Waterless hand sanitizers, found in hospitals, schools, day-care centers, grocery stores and health clubs, are generally considered effective germ killers if they contain more than 60 percent alcohol. But are they safe?

A colleague’s 8-year-old daughter licked 10 to 20 globs of hand sanitizer while at a supervised play center at a suburban health club, an idea that originally came from a classmate while at school. She ended up in the intensive care unit for two days.

“She was bumping into things and acting, well, drunk, but she said she had hit her head and we thought concussion,” said her father. “I took her home and she was passing out in the car. I was about to go to the emergency room when she blacked out. My wife called 911. She stopped breathing for a few seconds in the ambulance, but when they put tube in, she was breathing again on her own.”

The hand sanitizer-Purell with aloe-contained 62 percent ethyl alcohol--and the father was told if it had been isopropanol, found in other brands, the ingestion likely would have been fatal.

“As it was, her blood alcohol level at 6 p.m., less than two hours after exposure, was .218. She was going from unconscious to screaming rage to unconscious every few minutes. She awoke lucid at midnight, though her blood alcohol content was still .106. (The legal limit is .08)

“Physically she appears to be fine now,” her father said of the April incident. But “there are some emotional scars for sure." 

The Illinois Poison Center has only had one similar case, involving a four-year old and say licks and tastes are not generally harmful.

But earlier this year, the New England Journal of Medicine reported two cases of people getting intoxicated after ingesting the alcohol-based hand sanitizers. One was a normally mild and calm 49-year-old prison inmate who was described as being ‘red-eyed,’ ‘loony’ and ‘combative’ and ‘lecturing everyone about life.’"

Another case involved a 43-year-old man battling alcoholism. When asked why he ingested the hand cleaner, he pointed to the label that read, “active ingredient 63 percent v/v ispropyl alcohol," which he said is higher than that in vodka, according to the report.

I use hand sanitizer all the time. Is my very calm 5-month old getting drunk when he sucks on my hand? Alarmed, I e-mailed nurse epidemiologist Ed Goodwin at Rush University Medical Center, who said, “the alcohol part evaporates in just seconds as it air dries…so your hands may still feel it but there is no alcohol touching your child’s lips.”

Still, parents should remember the sanitizers can be fatal if abused and that teenagers are already on to this dangerous high.

“Most kids might take a lick and get repulsed,” said the 8-year-old’s father. “(My daughter) said she liked the taste.”

http://featuresblogs.chicagotribune.com/features_julieshealthclub/2007/05/getting_drunk_o.html

Originally posted: May 22, 2007

According to the US National Library of Medicine's MEDLINEplus Medical Encyclopedia, Ethanol Overdose is defined as "Poisoning from an overdose of ethanol secondary to excessive consumption of alcoholic beverages." Symptoms of overdose include slowed respirations, vomiting, abdominal pain, intestinal bleeding, stupor, and coma.  They advise that, "If able to rouse an adult who has overconsumed alcohol, move the person to a comfortable place to sleep off the effects.  Make sure the person won't fall, get hurt, and is not lying in vomit.  If the patient is semi-conscious or unconscious, emergency assistance may be needed.  WHEN IN DOUBT, CALL FOR MEDICAL HELP.  DO NOT INDUCE VOMITING UNLESS INSTRUCTED TO DO SO BY  Poison Control, because an individual can accidentally inhale vomit into the lungs."  The NLM notes that, "In cases of acute toxic alcohol consumption, survival over 24 hours usually indicates recovery will follow." Source: "Ethanol Overdose" MEDLINEplus Medical Encyclopedia, US National Library of Medicine (Bethesda MD: American Healthcare Accreditation Commission, Dec. 1, 2001); from the web at www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/002644.htm. 

In 1982, the State of Ohio entered the WAR ON DRUGS. 

"In War, truth is the first casualty."

Aeschylus

In a law review article, Colorado Judge Morris B. Hoffman writes, "By existing simply to appease two so diametric and irreconcilable sets of principles, drug courts are fundamentally unprincipled.  By simultaneously treating drug use as a crime and as a disease, without comeing to grips with the inherent contradictions of those two approaches, drug courts are not satisfying either the legitimate and compassionate interests of the treatment community or the legitimate and rational interests of the law enforcement community.  They are, instead, simply enabling our continued national schizophrenia about drugs."

Source: District Judge Morris B. Hoffman, Second Judicial District (Denver), State of Colorado, "The Drug Court Scandal, " North Carolina Law Review (Chapel Hill, N.C.: North Carolina Law Review Association, June 2000), Vol. 78, No. 5, p. 1477.

Franklin, Montgomery and Clark counties rank among the worst counties in Ohio for OVI arrests, or operating a motor vehicle while impaired.

In fact, with 800 arrests, Franklin County, which includes Columbus, had more OVI arrests than any other county in Ohio through November for 2006.

That number according to a recently released report from the Ohio State Highway Patrol, which lists the top ten, or worst ten counties in Ohio for drunk driving.

Franklin County sits at number one, Montgomery County comes in at number seven with 612 arrests, and Clark County rounds out the top ten with 565 arrests.

Lorain and Mahoning counties came in at number two and three respectively.

132 OVI arrests have been made in Logan County so far in 2006. Shelby County comes in at 175, Auglaize 135, Union 87, Hardin 81 and Champaign 73.

Franklin County also ranks as the 7^th worst in Ohio with 21 felony OVI arrests, which includes offenders with four or more OVI convictions.

Those stats were taken from January 2005 through November 2006.

Through November troopers had made 24,051 OVI arrests for 2006.

This article was written by Mark Strayer, and can be found at http://www.peakofohio.com/content/view/2152/50/

Tonight at 10:00 pm until 2:00 am the State Highway Patrol will be conducting a sobriety checkpoint at Col. Glenn Highway.  This, no doubt, is to take advantage of the May Day festivities at Wright State and to capitalize on various Cinco de Mayo celebrations as well.  If you are traveling on this highway please take note of how you are treated and how the checkpoints make you feel.  If you are arrested for OVI/DUI please contact me at 937-879-9542.

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