Last week a woman from Marion County was charged with DUI after a test revealed her blood alcohol level to be 0.466 – more than five times the legal limit in Florida. An expert said Leianne Francine Lazurus’s blood alcohol level “was in the lethal range.”
Lazurus, 33, was hospitalized until physicians could stabilize her and her blood alcohol level dropped to “just” .279. Lazurus was then put in jail.
Posts Tagged ‘Alcohol Treatment’
Marion County Woman’s Blood Alcohol Level Deemed Lethal
Wednesday, February 29th, 2012Spanish Teens Have Low Rates Of Substance Use
Monday, February 20th, 2012A new study from the University of Seville in Spain finds that most young people in Spain do not fit the risk profile of substance use. About 60 percent of Spanish youths between the ages of 13 and 18 report they do not take drugs and rarely drink alcohol. Less than 10 percent of Spanish youths admit to having taken some form of an illegal drug.
“Although it is important that society, the media, the experts involved and young people themselves change the stereotype of adolescents taking drugs, the data from our study should not be seen as an excuse not to prevent substance use,” said lead researcher Pilar Ramos, a professor at the University of Seville.
Alcohol Sales Increased Last Year
Monday, February 6th, 2012There are encouraging signs that the U.S. economy is recovering, including an increase in sales of alcohol. According to the Distilled Spirits Council of the U.S., sales of alcohol last year increased by 2.7 percent.
Sales of high-end alcohol increased by 5.3 percent in 2011, from 3.3 percent in 2010. In 2009, high-end alcohol sales decreased by 3.5 percent. Overall sales of alcohol increased by 4 percent in 2011 to a total $19.9 billion dollars. In 2010, there was a 2.3 percent increase in alcohol sales, and at the height of the recession in 2009, there was no increase in alcohol sales.
Experts hope that despite the increase in overall alcohol sales, there is not an increase in people becoming addicted to alcohol.
Halfway House President Sentenced To Prison
Saturday, February 4th, 2012The owner and president of a halfway house company based in Fort Lauderdale was sentenced this week to more than two years in prison for health care fraud.
Natalie Evans, 50, was the president of Vision of Hope Recovery Inc. The company ran five halfway house in Fort Lauderdale. Most of the residents at Evans’ five halfway house were recovering drug and alcohol addicts.
Former Miss USA Appears In Court In DUI Case
Saturday, January 21st, 2012Former Miss USA Rima Fakih appeared in a suburban Detroit courtroom this week in her drunken driving case. Her attorneys hope the case could be resolved soon with a plea deal.
“I apologize. My lawyer doesn’t want me to talk,” said Fakih.
Her attorney, W. Otis Culpepper, will prepare for a trial, but understands that a plea deal is a possibility.
“Of course she’s remorseful. She’s a model for young women…She’s a woman of substantial character,” said Culpepper.
At the time of her arrest, police found a bottle of champagne inside her Jaguar. Her blood alcohol level was measured at 0.20 %, much higher than Michigan’s limit of 0.08%.
Fakih won the Miss USA title in May of 2010. She was the first Arab-American to be crowned Miss USA, and the first Miss Michigan to win since 1993. Fakih was born in Lebanon, but moved to the United States at a young age.
Eastern North Carolina Struggling With Prescription Drug Abuse
Monday, January 16th, 2012Eastern North Carolina is experiencing dire consequences from prescription drug abuse.
“With the exception of traffic fatalities, prescription drug overdoses are the leading cause of death among young people in Eastern North Carolina,” said North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper.
According to the North Carolina State Center for Health Statistics, the death rate for unintentional overdoses was 11 per 100,000 people, but was higher in the counties of Eastern North Carolina. Eastern North Carolina has seen a 400 percent increase in prescription drug abuse over the past five years. According to the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services, methadone, oxycodone, hydrocodone and other pain pills were the most common drugs to blame for overdose deaths in Eastern North Carolina.
Emergency Rooms Prepare For New Year’s Eve
Saturday, December 31st, 2011New Year’s Eve is a busy night for emergency room physicians across the country. In San Francisco last year, emergency rooms experienced approximately a 50 percent increase in patients on New Year’s Eve.
“We’re already preparing to see more patients,” said Dr. Malini Singh, interim medical director for San Francisco General Hospital’s emergency department. “It’s just a reality of New Year’s Eve.”
Alcohol plays a significant role in the traffic in emergency rooms on New Year’s Eve. Broken bones, head wounds and the injuries resulting from drunken driving are the most common problems seen in emergency rooms. Physicians are cautioning people to be responsible with alcohol, while not encouraging people to overindulge in alcohol.
“I don’t want people to think I’m encouraging drinking, but if you do, you have to drink responsibly,” said Dr. Steven Polevoi, the medical director for the University of California at San Francisco emergency department.
South Florida A Hub For Venezuelan Drug Money
Thursday, December 29th, 2011Although relations between the United States and Venezuela continue to deteriorate, suitcases of laundered drug money continues to arrive in south Florida. According to the Office of National Drug Control Policy, south Florida has become a hub of drug-money laundering.
A task force in Broward and Miami-Dade counties has traced millions of dollars to international heroin and cocaine traffickers. More than 15 people in south Florida – mostly Venezuelans – were arrested last year on federal money laundering charges. They are accused of laundering more than $7 million dollars in profits from heroin and cocaine.
“It’s very blatant,” said Carmen Pino, assistant deputy in charge of Homeland Security Investigations in Miami. “South Florida is a real hot spot for this because of all the international trade.”
Delray Beach Residents Upset About Planned Sober House
Thursday, December 29th, 2011Residents in Delray Beach are opposing a sober living facility that will soon open in their North Ocean Boulevard neighborhood. The supervised program will be run by the Caron Foundation.
“We certainly have plans to open an additional facility,” said Drew Rothermel, president of Caron Florida operations.
Despite the fact that federal law protects people who are in active recovery, residents still say they do not want the house in their backyard.
“We have been caught off guard and many people are angry for that,” said Cary Glickstein, an area resident and the chairman of Delray Beach’s Planning and Zoning Board. “Transient housing denigrates a neighborhood for a myriad of reasons and in my opinion belongs in the city only where transient lodging is currently allowed – hotel zoning property – and not in single-family neighborhoods.”
Rothermel and advocates for the facility say that this uproar only adds to the discrimination that recovering addicts face every day.
Pill Mill Kingpin’s Sentencing Delayed Six Months
Tuesday, December 20th, 2011Pill mill kingpin Jeff George will not be sentenced for at least another six months on second degree murder charges in the 2009 death of a clinic patient.
George, several of his relatives and others connected to the East Coast Pain Clinic are facing federal charges from “Operation Oxy Alley,” an investigation that involved local and federal drug agents. Florida state prosecutors also charged George and two other people with murder in the death of Joey Bartolucci. The 24-year-old was found dead with half-filled prescriptions for Xanax and Dilaudid prescribed by one of East Coast Pain Clinic’s physicians.
George pleaded guilty and agreed to cooperate with federal prosecutors in exchange for a plea agreement that made his potential prison sentence at a maximum of twenty years. Now George will not be sentenced until June of 2012.