"Health & Medical News"

Colorado’s noneconomic damage cap in medical liability cases is under fire. Physicians say legislation — approved by the state Senate in late February — threatens to unhinge the state’s stable medical liability climate.

The bill, backed by trial lawyers, would raise the current $300,000 cap by roughly 50%, to more than $460,000, largely to track inflation. More problematic, doctors say, is that injuries classified as physical impairment or disfigurement no longer would be subject to the limit on pain and suffering awards.

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The NAACP, National Urban League and other groups called on Congress to end the federal ban on funding needle-exchange programs, saying that the harm-reduction strategy has been proven to prevent HIV/AIDS, the Associated Press reported Feb. 6.

The plea was made in coordination with the Harm Reduction Coalition and in conjunction with National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day. Federal funding for needle exchanges have been banned for 20 years, although most states fund the programs.

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Rates of post-storm addiction and mental-health problems among Hurricane Katrina and Rita survivors can be directly correlated to how long they were displaced from their homes, according to new research from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA).

The study found that while most survivors displayed great resiliency after the storms, the rate of addiction and mental-health programs was much higher among those who had been forced from their homes for two weeks or more.

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Texas is the only state in the U.S. that still does not have a needle-exchange program, but one 73-year-old lay chaplain is risking arrest to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS among drug users, the Los Angeles Times reported Jan. 28.

Bill Day, who has AIDS and heads the Bexar Area Harm Reduction Coalition, was recently arrested and faces up to a year in prison for distributing clean needles to addicts. But Day says the ban on needle-exchange programs is immoral and that he will continue his work.

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A proposed new nutrition information panel for alcoholic beverages should include alcohol-content information instead of relegating such disclosures to a smaller and less-visible part of drink packaging, and producers also should be required to provide a list of ingredients in their products, the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) says.

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With a Congressional funding ban finally lifted, the District of Columbia government announced that it will spend $650,000 of local taxpayers’ money to establish needle-exchange programs aimed at cutting HIV/AIDS transmission among drug users, the Washington Post reported Jan. 3.

In its FY2008 budget plan, Congress ended a ban on D.C. using public funds to fund needle exchanges, although a ban on federal funding for the harm-reduction programs remains in place. D.C. Mayor Adrian M. Fenty said the clean-needle programs are needed to help reduce the HIV/AIDS rate in the city, which is among the highest in the nation.

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A survey by the AIDS Project of Central Iowa found that most of the Democratic candidates for president said they would support needle exchange programs to help prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS among injection-drug users, Medical News Today reported Nov. 30.

Each candidate was asked, “Do you support access to sterile syringes, as a means of protecting public health, by lifting the ban on federal funding for syringe exchange?” Sen. Hillary Clinton, Sen. Barack Obama, New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, former Sen. John Edwards, and Sen. Joseph Biden all answered “yes” to the question.

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By Dr David Robinson

Just last week another “expert” from another media publication was on a news morning show touting myriads of “Do’s” & “Dont’s” for “weight loss” and espousing people to first ask themselves numerous questions to determine if they are really “ready” to undertake lifestyle changes.

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By a 3-2 vote, the Utah Alcoholic Beverage Control Commission delegated its rulemaking authority to the state legislature on several key issues, the BYU NewsNet reported on Nov. 19.

These issues include whether alcoholic beverages should be sold only in state liquor stores, and labeling requirements for malt beverages and alcohol-infused energy drinks.

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The proposed anti-drug alliance between the U.S. and Mexico involves far more than funding and helicopters, but rather envisions an overhaul of the Mexican justice system, the Washington Post reported Nov. 18.

U.S. taxpayer dollars would be used to fund reforms of the Mexican courts, such as hiring new clerks and educating prosecutors, as well as training drug-sniffing dogs and other law-enforcement functions. The proposal calls for developing “centers of moral authority” and “a culture of lawfulness” in Mexico.

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