Prescription drug sweep taking place in Boynton Beach

An AK-47 and two grams of cocaine also seized, agents say

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DEA agents arrest a man while breaking up a prescription pill ring in Boynton Beach. (Ed Komenda, Sun Sentinel / January 17, 2013)

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By Ed Komenda, Sun Sentinel

11:58 a.m. EST, January 17, 2013

Federal agents Thursday were leading a sweep in Boynton Beach that has so far resulted in the arrests of more than a dozen people suspected of using stolen prescription pads to obtain drugs, officials said.

By 10:45 a.m., 16 people had been arrested, although more than 45 have been charged, 38 of whom are convicted, said DEA spokeswoman Mia Rio. Prior to the sweep, nine people had already been arrested.

The ring began by accessing Via Domitia Medical Center, a pain clinic in Dania Beach, she said.

"This is big," Rio said. "They're taking good medicine and selling it on the streets purely for profit."

DEA agent Kevin Stanfill said: "Just going out on these pill cases, we were able to seize two kilograms of cocaine and AK-47."

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The Drug Enforcement Administration has set up a staging area near Federal Highway and Gateway Boulevard. Rio said agents are hoping to make more than 30 arrests today.

Those arrested will be booked into the Palm Beach CountyJail on state drug charges, according to Rio.

The sweep started at 5 a.m., Rio said.

"Most of them are living in Boynton Beach," she said. "Most of them were sleeping when we got started."

The suspects are accused of having stolen prescription pads, forging the names of doctors and recruiting people to get the prescriptions filled.

"These are people you want off the streets," Rio said.

This developing news story will be updated as soon as additional information is available.

Sun Sentinel news partner WPEC-Ch. 12 contributed to this report.

Ekomenda@tribune.com, 561-243-6531, Twitter: @ejkomenda

Copyright © 2013, South Florida Sun-Sentinel

Jan 10, 2013, 7:59am CST

Texas' largest addiction-treatment nonprofits merge

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The Council on Alcohol and Drugs Houston has merged with Austin Recovery.

Olivia Pulsinelli

Web producer-Houston Business Journal

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The Council on Alcohol and Drugs Houston, the largest nonprofit provider of outpatient drug and alcohol addiction treatment services in Texas, has merged with Austin Recovery.

The Austin entity is the largest nonprofit provider of residential drug and alcohol treatment in Texas.

Mel Taylor, president and CEO of the Council, now serves as the CEO of both organizations. The organizations will retain their individual names and continue their existing services for the foreseeable future, the organizations said Thursdayt.

The merger, which became effective Jan. 1, will allow the entities to enhance the services they offer. Austin Recovery specializes in detoxification and both short- and long-term residential programs, and the Council provides outpatient and co-occurring behavioral health care, including a range of prevention, education and recovery support programs.

"Joining our two cultures makes sense," Taylor said in a statement. "Combining systems and coordinating treatment services that complement each other, we will strengthen the overall range and impact of care that supports our common mission: to provide best-in-class care while turning no one away."

Olivia Pulsinelli is the web producer for the Houston Business Journal's award-winning website.

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Drug & Alcohol Counselor Talks About Kids & Drugs « CBS Dallas / Fort Worth

Drug & Alcohol Counselor Talks About Kids & Drugs « CBS Dallas / Fort Worth

Maura Casey: Anonymity of addiction hurts more than helps

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3 hours ago  •  MAURA CASEY

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HARTFORD, Conn. — I often wished that state legislators who knew the most about addiction would band together and speak out as one during budget debates. Who better to advocate for treatment and chip away at public denial than the recovering alcoholics I knew who were also members of the Connecticut General Assembly?

Yet the answer was as close as my nearest mirror. Despite being a journalist and writing opinion for years, I was no more likely to publish a column about my own 20-plus years' recovery from alcoholism than lawmakers were prepared to out themselves on the floor of the legislature.

Whether springing from shame or shyness, my decision not to write about my addiction was a mistake. The same goes for most of my 20 million-plus fellow Americans who are in sustained recovery from addiction.

Besides our passivity, one barrier to public understanding may lie in the terms we use. "When people hear that a person is in 'recovery,' they think someone is struggling with addiction, or still using," when such is not the case, said Patricia A. Taylor, executive director of the nonprofit Faces and Voices of Recovery.

Her organization is onto something. Although recovering people lead utterly normal lives, our silence has allowed others to define us as either living under a bridge or teetering on the verge of relapse.

Worse, our lack of advocacy has enabled a treatment system to take shape that has, too often, criminalized addiction instead of treating it as a public health issue — one that estimates say costs the United States more than $500 billion annually.

Greg Williams, 29, of Danbury, Conn., makes a convincing case for the need to speak out in the eight-minute trailer of his riveting documentary on the recovery movement, "The Anonymous People." Williams hasn't used drugs or alcohol since 2001.

"Public perception continues to swim upstream against science," he says. Though addiction is a disease, "society continues to tell me the lie that at age 15, with a developing brain, and genetic predisposition, I somehow made a rational choice to become addicted."

Addiction is hardly the first illness to carry a stigma. In recent years, AIDS and cancer did, too. Treatment improved markedly when patients spoke out. The comparison is particularly apt to William L. White, who is a cancer survivor and author of the superb book, "Slaying the Dragon: The History of Addiction Treatment and Recovery in America."

"Talk to anyone who has undergone cancer treatment. From the beginning, you are told you will need regular lab tests and appointments for five years and are told what you can do to help your recovery," White said. "Yet in addiction, we give people a 30-day treatment, give them a hug and tell them to have a good life. It's like giving a patient an inadequate dose of antibiotics, then blaming them when the infection comes back."

What other illness do we approach this way?

When people do recover, White said, a fundamental misunderstanding of the anonymous traditions of programs such as Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous keep many from sharing their stories. The point of these traditions are not to inhibit people from speaking publicly about their recovery, but for people to refrain from identifying themselves as AA or NA members to shield the organizations from controversy — and the occasional relapse of leaders.

Yet America has a centuries-long tradition. In the 1730s, more than 200 years before the founding of Alcoholics Anonymous, American Indians established abstinence-based recovery circles, White said. Recovery in America should be celebrated, not hidden.

Williams hopes his documentary will help do that. He's aiming to complete it by April. And although he's convinced me, shedding anonymity might not be the right decision for every recovering person. "It's not about telling everyone to do it," he said. "If it's right for you, though, maybe you should join us and change the course of history."

Maura Casey of Franklin, Conn., is a former editorial writer for the New York Times who now writes for The Hartford Courant.

Read more: http://host.madison.com/news/opinion/column/guest/maura-casey-anonymity-of-addiction-hurts-more-than-helps/article_cce0bc0e-5521-11e2-b138-0019bb2963f4.html#ixzz2GvHQYorW