"Health & Medical News"

From:
Treatment Research Institute
600 Public Ledger Building, 150 S. Independence Mall West
Philadelphia, PA 19106
Tel: (215) 399-0980
http://www.tresearch.org

Paying substance abuse treatment providers for results, not services, may lead to improved quality of care, according to the first published study of a novel performance-based contracting system implemented by the State of Delaware in 2002.

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Youths and young adults who binge on alcohol raise their risk of developing myriad serious health problems later in life, including heart disease, high blood pressure, and diabetes, Newswise reported Nov. 20.

Researcher Marcia Russell of the Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation (PIRE) found that not only did young binge drinkers face more health risks as they age than moderate drinkers and those who start drinking later, the risk is independent of total alcohol consumed over a lifetime.

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The National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence (NCADD) and other addiction and prevention organizations fired off a letter objecting to Rep. Mark Souder (R-Ind.) calling them “drug legalization groups” because they oppose his legislation penalizing students with drug convictions by stripping their federal college aid.

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Thousands of prisoners convicted of crack-cocaine offenses could see their sentences cut and be released from prison if the U.S. Sentencing Commission makes recent changes in sentencing guidelines retroactive, the Los Angeles Times reported Nov. 12.

A new policy aimed at equalizing penalties for crack and powder cocaine, if applied to past as well as future offenders, would cut an average of about two years off the sentences of 19,500 federal prisoners, which would result in the release of about 2,500 prisoners.

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