How the Misunderstanding that Heroin Addiction Is a Choice and the Stigma Surrounding Medication-Assisted Treatment Leads to More Overdose Deaths

Heroin is an opioid that commonly appears as white or brown powder. Eventually a person can become physically dependent on heroin, meaning the body begins to expect the drug. A sudden withdrawal from the drug can cause intense symptoms such as vomiting, muscle pain, and cravings, often leading to relapse (Shannon, p. 172). Although the initial decision to try heroin may be up to the addict, due to the dependence one develops when using heroin, addiction eventually morphs into an involuntary compulsion. There are many factors out of an individual’s control that influence their likelihood of trying heroin and becoming addicted, such as their genes, the environment they grew up in, and how early they began their drug use (National Institute On Drug Abuse). Much of modern society has a preconceived notion that drug addicts are bad people and that their struggle with addiction could have been avoided if they had made better choices. In short, many people believe that drug addiction is a choice. However, this mentality and the poor image of medication-assisted treatment for addiction the medical community and public commonly hold have been shown to be dangerous and oftentimes lead to more overdose deaths. All in all, despite the fact that the initial decision to try heroin is mostly based on choice, a person does not have control in whether or not they become addicted due to multiple predetermined factors, thus demonstrating that heroin addiction is not a choice and that the stigma surrounding heroin addiction and medicine-assisted treatment, a stigma that has shown to cause more deaths from overdose, is not warranted

Collaboration and Intention: Making the Collaborative Family Law Process Safe(r)

Since the beginning of the collaborative family law movement, commentators from various professions have discouraged collaborative lawyers from accepting cases involving intimate partner abuse. The collaborative process, with its face to face meetings and emphasis on transparency and good faith, carries with it many risks for the partner who has been abused and who is attempting to end the relationship with the abusive partner. There may be occasions, however, when the at-risk partner believes that the collaborative process will enhance her safety or at least provide her with less exposure to future harm than other resolution processes. This article will explore whether there is any circumstance under which the collaborative lawyer should consider accepting a domestic abuse case into the collaborative system of resolution. Historically, domestic violence lawyers have favored the dual track of litigation and negotiation. While no system assures safety, serious questions remain whether the collaborative process can be safe under any circumstances for those who experienced abuse. Before making that determination, the collaborative lawyer must do what most family law lawyers have failed to do. The lawyer must make a commitment to study and understand the dynamics of intimate partner abuse. Without proficiency in understanding intimate partner abuse (domestic violence), and intentionally prioritizing safety of the client who has experienced abuse, the collaborative lawyer cannot validly assess a client’s future risk, particularly with an alternative dispute process. This article addresses ethical and practical issues that confront the collaborative lawyer when a case involves abuse and suggests remedies that can make the process safer

It’s Not Complicated: Containing Criminal Law’s Influence on the Title IX Process

Title IX processes that address campus sexual assault are undergoing dramatic changes in structure as well as in review. After receipt of the Department of Education’s 2011 “Dear Colleague” letter, colleges and universities were impelled to review how their institutions were implementing Title IX. From website information through decision making on alleged violations, the ways in which higher education addresses federally guided changes is a matter of national conversation. This essay addresses change in light of campus sexual assault allegations, and does not explicitly address other forms of Title IX complaints, such as athletic funding and opportunities. This essay will limit discussion to sexual harassment and sexual discrimination Title IX claims only, particularly, sexual assault. The primary topic of ongoing concern is how Title IX investigations and hearing processes are conducted. Review, and in some cases revision, of campus policies was prompted by two interconnected influences. The first was the referenced letter from the Department of Education, and the second was due process and other criticism by those who advocate within the criminal justice framework. This essay explores the impact that criminal law and criminal lawyers have had on the Title IX processes. Part of this exploration will include the recently released ABA Criminal Justice Section’s recommendations on how Title IX sexual harassment complaints should be handled. Unknown at the time of this writing is whether the administration will be influenced by these recommendations. As of this publication Secretary DeVos has met with representative survivors and their advocates, as well as those who claim to have been wrongfully accused. At a minimum we know that the topic has her attention. As this publication goes to print, Secretary DeVos has requested comments on de-regulation in “Enforcing the Regulatory Reform Agenda.” We can anticipate change, when and what is undetermined at this time. Incorporated throughout this discussion will be the complications, as well as changes, that develop when the Title IX process is viewed through a criminal justice lens. Particularly explored, is how the stereotypes regarding women’s credibility forms the foundation of challenges faced by survivors of sexual assault who seek relief. The last section of this essay addresses proposed recommendations to address the needs of those accused as well as protecting the harmed student

Collaboration and Coercion: Domestic Violence Meets Collaborative Law

‘Collaboration and Coercion’ addresses the systemic and individual concerns that arise when family members that have experienced abuse enter into the collaborative law process. A form of alternative dispute resolution, collaborative law is a method of resolving disputes without engagement of the legal system. The author addresses the structural and cultural difficulties that survivors of abuse encounter throughout the process as well as the ethical concerns that are raised when collaborative practitioners accept cases where the parties have a history of coercion within the intimate relationship

Examining the link between information processing speed and executive functioning in multiple sclerosis

Slowed information processing speed (IPS) is frequently reported in those with multiple sclerosis (MS), and at least 20% are compromised on some aspect of executive functioning also. However, any relationship between these two processes has not been examined. The Sternberg Memory Scanning Test, Processing Speed Index (WAIS-III), Delis Kaplan Executive Function System (D.KEFS), and Working Memory Index (WMS-III) were administered to 90 participants with MS. Their performance on the PSI was significantly below the normative scores but no deficits in memory scanning speed were evident. The initial response speed of the Sternberg and the PSI were more closely related to D.KEFS performance, particularly in timed tasks with a high cognitive demand (switching tasks). In contrast, memory scanning speed was related to working memory. This study reinforces the link between IPS and working memory in MS, and supports the suggestion that IPS is not a unitary construct

The Swift BAT Survey Detects Two Optical Broad Line, X-ray Heavily Obscured Active Galaxies: NVSS 193013+341047 and IRAS 05218-1212

The Swift Burst Alert Telescope (BAT) is discovering interesting new objects while monitoring the sky in the 14-195 keV band. Here we present the X-ray properties and spectral energy distributions for two unusual AGN sources. Both NVSS 193013+341047 and IRAS 05218-1212 are absorbed, Compton-thin, but heavily obscured (NH \sim 10^23 cm-2), X-ray sources at redshifts < 0.1. The spectral energy distributions reveal these galaxies to be very red, with high extinction in the optical and UV. A similar SED is seen for the extremely red objects (EROs) detected in the higher redshift universe. This suggests that these unusual BAT-detected sources are a low- redshift (z << 1) analog to EROs, which recent evidence suggests are a class of the elusive type II quasars. Studying the multi-wavelength properties of these sources may reveal the properties of their high redshift counterparts.Comment: 20 pages, accepted to Ap

Off to the Write Start: A Parent-Teacher-Child Story

This article describes a parent involvement program for preschool, kindergarten, and first grade children. During the school year, students at each grade level come to the school for three evenings, with the goal of creating their own book in a different format at each session. Benefits of the program include: increased interaction between students and parents or other significant adults; teacher modeling of literacy support strategies; improved home-school communication; books written (and available for reading) at child\u27s independent reading level; and increased familiarity of students and parents with teachers

Clinical Legal Education & Access to Justice: Conflicts, Interests, & Evolution

The explosive growth in the number of law school clinics over the last 50 years began with an individual client focus as a core component. This contributed to reducing unmet legal needs in substantive areas such as landlord-tenant, family, consumer and other areas. These service clinics accomplished the dual purpose of training students in the day-to-day challenges of practice while reducing the number of unrepresented poor. In recent years, however, the trend has been to broaden the law school clinical experience beyond individual representation and preparation for law firm practice. So-called “impact” clinics typically address systemic change without significant individual client representation. In this chapter from the forthcoming volume, Beyond Elite Law: Access to Civil Justice for Americans of Average Means(Samuel Estreicher & Joy Radice eds., Cambridge University Press, forthcoming 2014), the authors argue that the shift from service clinics to impact clinics is partly driven by clinicians’ search for status within the academy. Specifically, status plays an important role in a clinic design that permits clinicians to more easily engage in theoretical and doctrinal scholarship on subject matters that are more respected within the academy. The authors predict that this trend toward development of impact clinics will continue, particularly at higher ranked law schools, with the unfortunate side effect of reducing clinics’ contribution to addressing access to justice issues